The Devil Fruit That Ruined Lives
by kittyface27
Summary: After Luffy eats the most overpowered fruit in the world, many powerful pirate crews are after him. When one finally gets him, his life and personality is twisted and warped by that crew's selfishness, and the Luffy his real family knew is gone. Maybe for good when your whole life is a fabricated lie. M for child psychological trauma and violence.
1. Prologue

**Hi, hi, hi! I finished this fic a couple months ago but didn't post it because I was unhappy with the finished product, but after editing it it makes more sense than before and I think it has some potential. It's pretty dark, and Luffy changes a lot throughout due to certain events. This time, I'll let you decide if you think Katakuri is a good guy or bad guy. **

**I have tons of ideas about my made up all-all fruit, which is overpowered to the max, and this is the only one that has turned into anything worth posting. Enjoy~**

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There were multiple devil fruits in the world that were coveted more than others. Five in particular, while there was one that was the most sought out of all of them, no matter how powerful the other four were. It had been many generations since the "number one" fruit was found. It was tiny and appeared in the most secluded of places. Hidden from anyone directly looking for it.

Though fruits like the quake quake were powerful, it was not in the top five. Number five was a mythical zoan fruit. Including the dragon and phoenix fruit, though both were taken by strong pirates. Though logias were useful, they werent all powerful, so they didn't make the top five.

Number four, counting both mythical zoan fruits as one, was the darkness darkness fruit. Little was known about it other than it nullified all devil fruits. No one had found it in quite a long time.

Number three was the all-all logia fruit. It had the user able to transform into whatever logia they wish. But, it was known to be the most difficult fruit to control. It would need to have a smart and strong user. It had been found a total of six times, but usually the user died during battles as they were unable to properly control each different ability.

Next was the all-all zoan fruit, which was also difficult to control, but easier than the all-all logia fruit. The previous users for the all-all zoan fruit had come up with an ultimate form mixed with different traits of regular zoan fruits to be as powerful as possible. It had been found more often than the all-all logia, and was easier as well.

The number one fruit had been found once, generations ago. The all-all paramecia fruit. Able to control all paramecia abilities, including ones like the quake quake fruit. It made someone practically invincible, and was easier for the only user to use than it was known for the other two all-all fruits. If the original user had been a pirate, he could have done a lot of damage, even if it hadn't been part of the Great Pirate Age.

The man had been a marine admiral, known as the strongest man who had ever lived. But, even he hadn't mastered each fruit in his long life. Some were much harder than others. That was hundreds of years ago, but not during the Blank Century, where history was unknown and absent from everyone besides those who read the poneglyphs. Roger and his crew were the only ones to know true history, and they hadn't shared.

So, the all-all fruits were all sought out, especially the paramecia version. It would be quite powerful for someone who was able to use it properly, but disastrous by anyone who was unprepared or not strong enough to protect themselves even without being able to work the fruit yet.

So, having a four year old eat it was the worst possible thing to happen to him.

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**This is the prologue and very short, so I'll immediately post the first chapter. **


	2. The Search For Luffy Begins

When word got out to the whole world that the all-all paramecia fruit had been found, everyone seeking it got their hopes up. Fantasized about being the most powerful man or woman on the planet. Being the next pirate king. The next Whitebeard. Word spread across the whole world, and pirates and marines alike were on the edge of their seats, waiting for it to say where it was found.

The marines weren't happy with word spreading to anyone but themselves. Pirates passed it on to each other after merchants found out about it and brought the information to Paradise and then the New World. Everyone was hoping no one had eaten it yet, but if they did, then taking said devil fruit user and using them for their own benefit was the next best option.

Crews such as the the Donquixote pirates, the Big Mom pirates, Kaido, the marines, and many small crews wished to find the fruit or new user before anyone else. However, many people wanted the user dead. Someone having their own devil fruits didn't sit well with many. Crews like the Red Haired and Whitebeard pirates were not interested in finding the fruit or taking the new user for their own gain.

Whitebeard wasn't happy with someone having his powers, but he wasn't so upset that he'd do anything about it. His crew was strong enough as it was, even if the all-all fruit would make them even more so. They were happy as they were, and wouldn't partake in the race to be the strongest.

Red Hair was just fine with no devil fruit users on his crew, so it didn't matter much to him. He was just curious about who it was who would find it and what would happen after that.

The Charlotte family immediately had their strongest set out to find the fruit or its user. None of them could eat the fruit, as they would die painfully after already eating one, but a future child could eat it and make the Big Mom pirates even more powerful and feared among the world. It would help make the captain the next pirate king, which was one of her greatest ambitions, along with having every type of creature in her territory.

Multiple people and crews under Doflamingo set out, searching for the fruit. They carefully kept this a secret so Kaido wouldn't compete with them or order them to not look, as Doflamigno was under him while making the yonko SMILES to make him more powerful. He left his stolen kingdom to search himself, waiting for any information about the location or where the fruit had been seen.

Then there were the smaller, less known crews that flocked towards the fruit as well. So, when word got out that the fruit had been eaten, many felt defeated. But, learning _who _had eaten it, the search was on again. A _child _ate the powerful fruit. A child so young that he would easily be manipulated to be useful to whoever ended up finding him or her.

The siblings of the poor child who had eaten the fruit panicked, but did their best to keep their baby brother safe, even if they didn't like what would happen

-x-

"_Hello?" _a gruff voice answered on the snail.

"Gramps, it's Ace and Sabo," Ace said seriously. His tone of voice was clear to Garp. That something serious had happened.

"_Where's Luffy?" _

"He's with Makino in the other room. The call is about him, though," Sabo replied. "Luffy has eaten a stolen devil fruit. We don't know where he got it, but he started showing its powers."

-x-

It had been a stupid mistake that the boys hadn't been watching Luffy for just a second. Ace and Sabo had been trouble makers in town before Luffy came, when they stopped going into town too much because one, they had Luffy to take care of and sometimes that wasn't a one man job, and two, they didn't want anything negative they did lead anyone to follow them and endanger Luffy.

The three were in town, though, because it was Luffy's fourth birthday and they wanted him to taste cake for once in his life. It was expensive, but they used some of their pirate funds for the special occasion.

Everything was going fine, Luffy holding onto Sabo's hand tightly as they slowly walked to the bakery. It had been a couple years since Ace and Sabo ever brought negative attention to themselves, so they weren't too recognizable. Sabo let go of Luffy's hand just for a second to get out the money from his pockets to give to Ace to go inside and pay for the little cake. The boy only wandered off a few feet before Sabo noticed, but by then, Luffy had sneakily snagged a golden fruit that was in someone's pocket. He had seen the pretty stem, and wasn't meaning to make trouble.

But, before the man, who looked like a marine of some sort, noticed Luffy, he was walking away and back with his brothers, who hadn't witnessed his expert pick-pocketing. No one had seen directly, but one person did see the cute little boy putting something shiny in his pocket.

It wasn't until weeks later that anyone found out about a young child taking the coveted fruit that had been found inside of a very large and tall tree. Finding it had been chance since it was only the size of a strawberry and tucked inside the tree very far from the surface of the trunk.

Later that day, after Luffy had some delicious cake, he wanted a nap, and Ace and Sabo wouldn't let him stay in the treehouse by himself, even if there was a railing around it so he couldn't easily fall off. So they stayed in their home with Luffy, who was covered in a blanket and holding his worn stuffed bunny they found in the Gray Terminal and cleaned thoroughly.

As Luffy was extremely relaxed, something horrifying to the big brothers happened. The looked away from Luffy for only a second, and when they looked back, the small boy was gone, and there was a while blob in his clothes there, the shirt and shorts stretched out.

"AAAAH!" both brothers screamed, before Luffy's eyes snapped open and his was back to how he was supposed to be. He was startled by waking to yelling, and started crying. Ace and Sabo looked at each other in fear. But, they had to comfort their brother, who they scared. Well, he scared them first. But still.

"Luffy, do you feel okay?" Sabo asked worriedly. Luffy nodded, wiping his teary eyes. "We're sorry for scaring you," he apologized. Like usual, Luffy moved on quite quickly after an apology. He was quite forgiving.

However, the next couple of days, things started going wrong in other ways. Luffy turned into the blob a couple more times, but never realized it. During a bath in the stream, bubbles had foamed around him and filled the stream with soapy bubbles.

That same day, Luffy's small hand turned into diamond for around an hour before turning back to normal. He thought it was amazing, luckily not very scared about what was happening to him like his brothers were.

Neither had any idea what was wrong with him, and didn't know a thing about devil fruits, so there was no explanation other than them thinking it had something to do with whatever Luffy ate earlier that day. So, they had no choice but to seek information from somewhere. Gray Terminal wasn't trusted, so Ace decided to go into town and try and find information about abilities like this. Sabo wasn't fond of dealing with Luffy and the weird occurrences by himself, but it was necessary. Luffy was distracted by trying to turn into sparkly diamond again.

Sabo humored him, and didn't try to stop him from his interesting powers. So far, none of them were dangerous. "You're so sparkly, like our treasure stash," Sabo said as lightly as he could. Luffy beamed his little teeth and nodded. "But don't worry, we won't sell you for our pirate ship. Promise." Luffy giggled at this. He knew his brothers wouldn't sell him. Whatever that meant.

Sabo tried his best to not visibly freak out when Luffy's head suddenly toppled over and hit the wood floor while he remained sitting up. His neck was stretched down. However, Luffy finally didn't like this and started crying loudly. It only lasted for a few seconds before his head snapped back into place and he toppled backwards onto his back from the sudden impact.

"Shh, Lu it's okay. We'll figure out what's wrong. Don't worry, your brothers have your back. Promise," Sabo vowed and took Luffy into his arms. He rocked Luffy back and forth, who said he was scared.

Ace arrived not long after the neck incident, and saw a teary-eyed Luffy in Sabo's arms. "What happened?" Ace asked in concern. He had a book with him that he set down on the floor by the entrance of the treehouse. Luffy sniffled loudly.

"Luffy had a few incidents while you were gone," Sabo said vaguely. He wasn't going to paint this as negative or positive. They didn't know which one it was yet, after all. Ace frowned and looked down at the book. "Did you find something out?"

"Yeah. Luffy, did you eat anything gross lately?" Ace questioned nicely. Luffy nodded his head, which thankfully stayed in place. Sabo never wanted to witness something like that again. And Luffy hadn't liked it either, even if it hadn't seemed to hurt him. Thankfully.

Ace opened the book he had bought and opened it up to a page he'd put a leaf in as a bookmark. "Was it this one?" he asked, pointing to the golden fruit on the page, which had a list under it. Ace couldn't read, but Sabo could, so that was lucky.

"Yeah, it was that one!" Luffy exclaimed. He had thrown the fruit away in the woods once he determined it was too yucky to finish. "It was yucky." Ace sighed, but didn't look upset. His expression was carefully crafted. Before Luffy came, Sabo knew Ace would never have been able to control his emotions the way he did around his younger brother. Ace handed Sabo the book, asking for him to read it out loud. He was over the fact that he couldn't read or do advanced math, and just was glad someone in their trio could.

Sabo took the book and began to read the contents of the two pages out loud to his brothers. Luffy moved to sit in Ace's lap. "The all-all fruit, paramecia class. A devil fruit that grants the user the ability to use all devil fruit abilities under the paramecia class. This includes: the gum-gum fruit, the chop-chop fruit, the slip-slip fruit, the _b-bomb-bomb_ fruit," Sabo said, starting to feel alarmed at the information. But he continued to read. "The kilo-kilo and ton-ton fruits, flower-flower, wax-wax, munch-munch," (Luffy giggled at this, clearly not understanding what was being read to him). "Clone-clone, dice-dice, spike-spike, cage-cage, string-string, hobby-hobby, spring-spring, slow-slow, love-love, bubble-bubble, door-door, rust-rust, revive-revive, p-poison-poison, wheel-wheel, shadow-shadow- hollow-hollow, op-op, clear-clear, paw-paw, straw-straw, castle-castle, horm-horm - do I have to list all of them?" Sabo asked. He really didn't want to know the other dangerous powers the four year old not possessed and could in no way control.

"Can you count how many there are?" Ace asked, sweating heavily, especially at the _bomb-bomb and poison-poison _powers! Sabo looked down the list and counted all of them that had been identified in the book. It said that there could be more that haven't been recorded yet, which only made Sabo uneasier.

"...Se… seventy-two," Sabo said quietly. "That are recorded in this book. There could and probably are more out there." Ace blanched. "For some reason, a great deal of them are food related." He gave a shaky smile. "At least Luffy will never go hungry." He tried to lift the mood of the treehouse so that the two preteens didn't give off a negative vibe to luffy, who they were glad was not freaking out.

Seventy-two, though. That's a lot. Especially for someone so _young! _Luffy just turned _four, _he can't handle something like this! Hell, even Ace or Sabo wouldn't be able to handle such a strong devil fruit. And they were both gravely thinking the same thing. They needed outside help.

Neither of them had any trust in any sort of doctor or stranger or anyone for help, so there was only one person they could ask: Garp. Luffy didn't have a set goal yet, even though he knew Ace and Sabo wanted to be pirates. So, his freedom to his dream wouldn't be taken away if he were to live with the marines for however long it took for him to master the powers and at least be able to defend himself.

"Food? I can make food?" Luffy asked, the only thing he got out of the conversation. Ace put his hand to his forehead while Sabo chuckled.

"Once you are able to control the powers, you'll be able to create food. It will take a long time, though," Sabo explained.

"And we'll need help. We have to call Grandpa," Ace told Luffy. "I'm sure he'll be happy to see us." Both he and Sabo knew there was the silent "and kill us for not supervising you good enough". But, Garp would protect Luffy. The sooner the better, as the people in town know Ace had something to do with a devil fruit based on the book and questions he'd asked the owner of the book store he shopped at.

Devil fruit users were either punishable or coveted in the Blues. Hated or wanted. And someone as young as Luffy with such a rare devil fruit, with the rating on the page of being the hardest to be found. Once whoever Luffy took the fruit from realized it was missing will no doubt search for it. Luffy suddenly displaying some sort of devil fruit power, or multiple, would be a dead give away.

"Why don't we go see Makino-san?" Sabo offered. Luffy jumped up and cheered. He really liked Makino and her house she lived at. Sabo and Ace both knew she had a direct line to Garp's personal den den mushi. To call in emergencies regarding the island or his grandsons. They would ask Dadan for her den den but Ace didn't want to risk having her want to exploit Luffy's potential.

It was ten minutes later that Sabo was climbing down the rope ladder with Luffy clamped to his back, and they walked through the forest and down the Foosha Village. They didn't know where Garp was now, whether he was in the Grand Line or luckily, and unlikely, in the East Blue.

Once they all heard voices in the forest, they hurried their pace, going the long way to the little village that those in Goa didn't care about. Having multiple people in the forest was worrying, but honestly they all probably got attacked by the giant animals by then. That was a good thing about living in the forest. It was as if they had hundreds of vicious guard dogs that attacked anybody and anything.

Ace and Sabo were different, though. They'd been in the forest long enough for the animals to know that they would end up as food if they tried anything. There were a few that were the exception, like the Bear King or original Tiger Lord. So, they were left alone, and Luffy was able to walk between both of them.

When they reached the village, the citizens greeted them happily, knowing Ace and Luffy were Garp's grandchildren, and Sabo as an adopted one. The three made a b-line to Makino's bar, which was empty at this time of the day.

The three boys had all forgotten it was Luffy's birthday after everything that had happened, so were surprised to interrupt Makino baking a cake. They hadn't even thought about the Foosha Villagers wanting to celebrate Luffy's birthday.

"Hi, boys!" Makino said happily. Luffy ran to her and hugged her legs tightly. However, she noticed quickly that Luffy was the only one who was acting happy. She grew concerned when Ace asked for the den den mushi to call Garp. And that it was an emergency. "Alright. I'll be right back," she said and went up the stairs to her living quarters and fetched the snail. She was worried about what the reason was for Ace and Sabo to want to call Garp, who wasn't the most gentle and loving grandfather when he did visit.

Sabo and Ace handed Luffy off to Makino to play, which she was more than happy to do, while they headed to the storage room to speak privately. They did trust Makino, but it may be safer for her to not know. Things could get ugly, and Ace and Sabo were anticipating that would happen. Human greed had no end, as did the anger that must be directed at the new owner of the fruit from whoever Luffy stole it from.

"_Hello?" _a gruff voice answered on the snail.

"Gramps, it's Ace and Sabo," Ace said seriously. His tone of voice was clear to Garp. That something serious had happened.

"_Where's Luffy?" _

"He's with Makino in the other room. The call is about him, though," Sabo replied. "Luffy has eaten a stolen devil fruit. We don't know where he got it, but he started showing its powers."

"_... What is it? What devil fruit did he eat? Damn devil fruits ruin everything," _the vice-admiral grumbled. He did sound worried, though. Whatever fruit Luffy had eaten, it wasn't a good one. Well, were any devil fruits inherently good? However, he didn't even consider the one he was answered.

Sabo sighed. "He ate the all-all paramecia," Sabo admitted. Silence on the other side. Then there was the sound of something crashing and breaking. Garp knew what the problem was, and how much danger Luffy was in. What all of his grandsons were in. Goa, a place that was supposed to be their safe haven, was now very dangerous to them. He'd seen the paper about that fruit being found, though there had been nothing about where it was found.

And now Luffy had the most coveted fruit in existence. A four year old!

"_Damn it!" _Garp bellowed. Ace and Sabo were glad he wasn't there in person. "_Stay in Foosha. Don't go back to the forest and keep Luffy hidden. I'll come as soon as possible. I'll be there in two weeks. You better keep him safe or I'll give you more than a beating." _

Garp was clearly fearful for his youngest grandson's life and safety. So much that he didn't trust other marines to handle him safely. "We will," Ace replied strongly. Then, the den den's expression softened.

"_Ace-" _Garp began, but said grandson cut him off.

"I know. I can't come. Just make sure you take real good care of Luffy until he can handle the fruit," Ace said quietly. He bit his lip, but didn't let it show how upset he was. "We're sorry we didn't supervise him well enough," he apologized. Sabo muttered an apology as well.

"_I don't blame you two. Even before he could walk, Luffy was a troublemaker," _the marine said with a gruff chuckle.

Sabo spole next. "Is it safe for Luffy, though? To be in the marines? Do they not know who his dad is?" Ace and Sabo had overheard Dadan and Garp once when they were drunk. Luffy's dad was Monkey D. Dragon. The most infamous criminal in the world, even more so than the top pirates of the New World.

"_I'll make sure he stays safe here. No one else knows about his heritage but Sengoku, and he's a good secret keeper as long as Luffy doesnt turn out like my stupid son. Keep safe, I'll leave today to come and get Luffy. Stay in Foosha for now. Don't even go back into the forest once. _

"_Be warned that, once the public knows someone on Dawn Island ate the fruit, pirates and government officials alike will try and take him. Keep him and yourselves safe. Got it?" _Garp finished sternly.

Both pre-teens agreed and promised that they'd do their best to keep things under control. They would both miss Luffy so much, but this was for his own good. They heard Makino scream from the other room and hung up the snail and ran in to see Luffy had turned into the blob again. After Sabo read all of the fruits' names, he could identify this fruit as the mochi-mochi fruit, which was one of the food related fruits.

Ace hurried over to Luffy, who snapped back into regular form. He looked upset, but didn't cry. Makino had wide eyes, thoroughly freaked out by what just happened. Neither wanted to explain what had happened and put Makino in danger in case anyone got here before Garp did. When she looked at them with questioning eyes, Sabo said, "We can't tell you. Garp is on his way here and will be here as soon as possible."

"Can we stay with you for a bit?" Ace questioned. Makino nodded slowly, wondering why the boys had invited someone they both feared to come to the island. She assumed it had to do with what had happened a minute ago. But, she didn't press them for anymore answers.

"Do you want to stay in the storage room? Are you hiding from someone?" Makino asked vaguely. She didn't need a complex answer. Just a yes or no, which was what Ace gave her. Staying in the storage room that had no windows would be best. They hoped no one had seen them enter Foosha. It had no marines or police here to protect anyone. It was too rural and peaceful.

Pirates did rarely come as there was a marine flag, Garp's fluttering high on a pole at the coast. Plus, this was the East Blue and there were only a few pirates that circulated the sea leisurely. A few were somewhat dangerous, but nothing compared to the Grand Line and New World.

The three boys spent the rest of Luffy's birthday playing games in the storage room, which now had some futon mats for them. Ace and Luffy would be sharing one while Sabo had the other. Ace and Sabo didn't tell the boy he'd be separated from them for awhile. A long while. They didn't want to ruin his birthday even more. It had already been ruined a bit, and they didn't want to make it worse.

Bed time was nice, because they three brothers finally had some sort of cushion instead of on their treehouse floor. They each fell asleep easily, even Ace and Sabo, who were feeling a great deal of stress and sorrow at losing their little brother, who they'd only been with for a little over three years. They'd miss him so much.

They would demand to have contact with him at least over the den den mushi. That's what they deserved, along with Luffy. What a mess all because of a stupid fruit. Damnit, why hadn't they been paying better attention?! The two would always resent themselves for this.


	3. Luffy Is Found

**Watching the rain fall: Thank you! It's a lot different than my other child Luffy fics.**

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**This is a possibly upsetting chapter featuring Garp and some new enemies. Poor clueless Luffy. Enjoy~**

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The newspaper the next day was delivered, and the whole village was nervous and frightened. They didn't know the scope of it or the whole story, but the newspaper reported that multiple large, New World crews had entered the East Blue. They didn't know that the pirates would come to Dawn Island, but the fear was there.

Sabo read the newspaper aloud to Ace while Luffy napped on the futon in the storage room, a blob of mochi on the bed and under a soft blanket. "_Multiple large crews have crossed through the Grand Line in almost record time after hearing about the coveted devil fruit found in the East Blue. These crews include New world crews such as the Big Mom pirates, Donquixote pirates, including the captain himself who has taken a break from his kingdom. Multiple smaller, lesser known crews have also made their move. _

"_The authorities encourage citizens in the East Blue to keep a look out and stay home if any arrive on your island. Hiding is your best option. The fruit's exact location is not known by the public, but no matter the island you are on, you could be in danger." _

Sabo frowned and looked worried. "Gramps said not to go into the forest, but would that be safer than being on the coast? Or going back to the bandits' hut?" Ace wondered. Sabo shrugged, but they both trusted Garp's judgement in situations like these, which they'd never encountered. But, he was a seasoned marine, so he knew what was best, even if the boys doubted his decision.

How would the marines treat Luffy? Would they see him as a nuisance to take care of? Would he take up a lot of Garp's time? Who and how would anyone train him? Did any marines have devil fruits? Well, surely some did, but there had to be others that had devil fruits and weren't in the marines. It was a given. And the two doubted any pirate or wanted criminal would like teaching a four year old how to use _their _powers.

Surely, some in the world would be upset with someone having the same power as them. They would kill Luffy for that. Ace and Sabo knew most pirates were bastards, like Bluejam. They had of course heard stories of horrible pirates from Garp. Though, they still wanted to be pirates and free in the sea.

While Luffy was growing up and learning how to use his powers, Ace and Sabo would eventually set out on their pirate journeys in a couple years. They would see Luffy again, though. There was no doubt they'd meet up with him again, once he was stronger. The strongest.

No one came to bother them the first three days, and they stayed at Makino's, who was glad to have them and feed them as Garp told them to not go back into the forest until he was there. Ace and sabo could fight against guards or policemen from Goa, but having Luffy with them while doing so had always been a nerve-wracking liability.

Not that they wouldn't miss him. Some things would be easier, but they'd also not really have anything to do. No one to teach or play with or raise as best as they could. Neither had told Luffy he was being separated from them yet. They would postpone it until Garp arrived. Hopefully before the other pirates did. East Blue may not be tiny, but it was also much easier to navigate and New World or Paradise pirates would no doubt have no trouble navigating these waters.

Luffy was happy to play with toys Makino bought for him, since he had no real toys and only one stuffed animal that had been trash. He also got some paper to draw on. The boy seemed to enjoy it, so hopefully Garp and the marines could give him more than the brothers could. They felt bad for not getting Luffy any toys and hoarding their stash of money for the future. They could have at least spent some money on the little one.

Throughout the days, Luffy continued to have trouble with many of his new powers, though the same ones each time. The one that made him rubber, mochi, diamond and bubbles. Luckily, he didn't have trouble with the poison or bomb fruits. Or any of the ones that included sharp objects, like the spike-spike and dice-dice fruits. Along with the snip-snip. Ace and Sabo were thankful for that, and also thankful Makino didn't press them over what was happening to Luffy, even though it scared her.

The two older brothers assured her that Luffy would be fine, but it was hard for them to believe, especially when they'd needed to call for Garp about it. But, at least Garp would know what to do about whatever was wrong with Luffy. Makino had honestly not liked that the baby had been sent to live with bandits and eventually started living in the woods. It was dangerous, and Makino was upset that Garp didn't do anything about it.

The other villagers wondered why the trio were spending so much time with Makino, but werent nosey about it. Plus, Ace and Sabo wouldn't let anyone but Makino see what was happening to Luffy. In an emergency, the two had no doubt they would give information to those looking for whoever ate the fruit they all wanted.

After multiple times of Luffy stretching some part of his body, he wasn't scared of it anymore and was more fascinated with the changes. Ace explained to him more about devil fruits, in a way that a four year old would understand, and instructed him that he couldn't swim anymore. He wasn't good at it anyways, but had enjoyed the feeling.

"I can't go in water anymore? What about baths?" Luffy asked somewhat sadly.

Ace rubbed his head. "I'm sure you can take baths as long as there is someone there to help you. Just not by yourself and not in deep waters. Okay?" The boy nodded his head in understanding. He didn't want to drown. And, he thought these powers were cool enough to be better than being able to swim by himself.

They had one unlucky encounter with a customer during the evening. Luffy had been playing by the bar counter with his toys, Sabo reading Ace information about devil fruits quietly from the book they had brought with them. The only thing they'd brought with them, besides Luffy's bear, which was on the bar counter, discarded for the new toys for now.

The man got drunk quickly, and Luffy was unluckily in his view, playing with toys with a diamond coated hand and arm. The man thought he was seeing things, but then the other black haired preteen hurried over to Luffy and lead him into the storage room.

"What was with that?" the man asked in slightly slurred speech. Makino just smiled sweetly and asked what he meant. She knew, but was playing pretend, knowing Ace and sabo wanted this to stay secret. "That kid's arm."

"Oh, I don't know. I didn't see anything," she said pleasantly, lying quite well. Sabo watched from behind the man at one of the tables, book still open, with a grateful smile to the barmaid. The man moved on, for now. Hopefully he was too drunk to remember what had happened, or thought he had seen something strange because he was under the influence.

-x-

The two weeks passed slowly, and Luffy had awakened multiple new powers. One of them was another food related power, which made him be able to create hard candy. He was starting to show a bit of control, though he didn't mean to, really. He just kept his hand made of candy so he could suck his thumb with the tasty food. It was a start, and Ace and Sabo were proud of him. It gave them some hope that they might not be separated from him as long as they thought.

Another power that turned up was Luffy was able to turn the tips of his fingers invisible, but only his fingers. No one had noticed it at first, but Makino had eventually been the one to notice and pointed it out. Luffy hadn't even noticed himself.

"The clear-clear fruit. Makes the user invisible," Sabo told Ace quietly, so Makino didn't hear. But, she had an idea that Luffy had eaten a devil fruit, even if she didn't know much about them and had never met anyone who had eaten one.

Thankfully, no harmful ones had appeared yet. They didn't want to deal with Luffy turning into some sort of weapon or secrete poison.

The newspaper reported that multiple islands had been attacked by New World pirates, and everyone in the East Blue grew uneasy. Many marines were dispatched to try and protect the islands from the pillaging pirates looking for the power which was now Luffy. They hoped that Garp would get there soon. Before the other pirates did.

It said some of the pirate crews had gotten into fights with each other, with the Big Mom crew slaughtering the smaller crews that got in the way, even accidentally. The Donquixote pirates and their allied crews were very violent in their pillaging the small islands.

At least the Big Mom crew, which had some of the members confirmed, hadn't been killing civilians who didn't get in their way and were honest in their answers about not knowing where the fruit came from.

That crew was the one that the marines were most worried about. Big Mom already had a very powerful crew and family, they didn't need to have an added powerhouse to it. Those on the ship that were confirmed were Charlotte Katakuri, Charlotte Oven, and Charlotte Amande. Under them were many allied crews that were strictly under their supervision. Word of Luffy eating the fruit hadn't gotten out yet, thankfully, so they were all still looking for the fruit itself, and didn't want anyone who wasn't their own family to eat the fruit.

Some were calling it the War of the Paramecia. Not the most original name, but it summed it up based on the fighting that was now taking place in the East Blue, which was supposed to be the most peaceful and weak of the sea. Which was now a large disadvantage. And because the sea was so weak, there were almost no marine bases in it.

Finally, almost exactly two weeks after the call, Garp's ship turned up. It had multiple small holes in the sail and had clearly been in a battle from a weaker pirate crew. Garp entered the bar to see Luffy sitting on the futon mat and napping, in his blob mochi form again, which seemed to happen all of the time he slept. Garp frowned at it. Not as if he was mad at Luffy but he didn't like that he had been the one to eat the fruit causing all of this trouble.

Ace and Sabo looked at him nervously and sadly, not wanting to say goodbye to Luffy, but knowing it was the right choice to do it soon. Sabo went to Luffy and woke him up, popping back into normal shape. He blinked sleepily before seeing the big man and jumped up.

"Grampa!" he cheered and hugged the man who picked the tiny child up with a grin. "What are you doin' here?" he asked curiously.

Garp kept the grin on, and said, "I'm here to take you on a special vacation for awhile," the marine replied. Ace and Sabo frowned deeper. Luffy cocked his head at the word. "A trip away from home." Garp didn't know if the truth would scare Luffy, so he didn't say it. Ace and Sabo clearly hadn't explained anything in depth either.

"Why?"

"Because of that devil fruit you got," Garp answered truthfully, though his tone of voice didn't give away his unhappiness with the situation.

Luffy smiled and said he had lots of cool stuff, and began to explain what had happened since his birthday. Garp kept a smile on, though it was forced. Luffy couldn't tell, however. "Is Ace and Sabo coming?" Garp lost his smile at this.

"No, your brothers aren't coming this time. But, once you can control the fruit more, I'll bring you back to them. Even if they set out as marines or something else, you'll see them again. I have no doubt. And I'm sure you'll want to come back and show you could defeat them in a battle. Right?"

Luffy frowned at being separated from Ace and Sabo. But, beating them in a fight sounded cool and then he would be strong like his big brothers. "But, I'll miss them," Luffy said.

"I know, Luffy. I'm sure they'll miss you, too. But we gotta be strong about it, okay?" Garp asked. Luffy still had a deep frown on, but he nodded. "You can still talk to them on the den den mushi sometimes. I brought one for them to keep and you to have."

"Thank you, Gramps," Ace said sincerely. His face was becoming hot with the threat of tears, which he didn't want to show in front of anyone, and especially not Luffy or Garp. "It means a lot to us."

Garp smiled at them, and replied, "Thank you for being mature and calling me instead of trying to figure it out on your own." The man was truly proud of their judgement in the situation. Before Luffy came, Ace was so impulsive and would no doubt have attempted to teach himself the powers and put Luffy and Sabo in great danger.

"We should leave soon and get back to the Grand Line and away from the pirate crews pillaging the islands. This island is under marine jurisdiction, and I've brought another ship to come and protect the island from any pirates that might try to search this island. Even though the fruit had been here, we want to do everything we can to protect the civilians living on the islands where no one can defend them," he explained.

Ace and Sabo nodded along, with Makino feeling very reassured. She hadn't been told to leave the room so she now had her idea confirmed about Luffy eating a devil fruit. Though, she hadn't known it was the one all of the New World pirates were after.

"Will Luffy be safe with you? From both pirates and nasty marines?" Ace asked with a very serious expression. Garp nodded.

"I'll be with Luffy for awhile now. I'm taking an extended leave, and Sengoku has approve of it. I'll make sure to keep him safe and sound. And happy, too. We have a lot of work ahead of us, though," the vice-admiral added honestly.

Ace and Sabo nodded, and Sabo handed Garp the book on devil fruits. "I jotted down some notes about which ones Luffy has shown already and how he's used them," Sabo explained. Garp stuck the book in his chest pocket and thanked the kid, setting Luffy down to say goodbye. That they had to leave very soon.

Luffy ran to his brothers and gave them a big hug. He had some tears, but Ace and Sabo kept theirs' under control and just gave him warm smiles, telling him they'd see him again when they were all bigger.

"I'll be super cool by then. Just you wait," Ace said with a cheeky grin. Luffy beamed through the tears. "Me too!" he cheered back. "I will learn to make food so you don't hafta hunt!"

Sabo laughed, and said he was looking forward to it. It was a bittersweet goodbye, but Luffy went willingly and didn't fight to stay. He had his new toys and precious-again stuffed bear that the brothers had found for him. He had no changes of clothes, as Garp thought it wasn't safe to go back to the forest. Ace and sabo were instructed to go back to the bandits and stay there, giving them a demanding and threatening note to give to Dadan and the boys.

Ace and Sabo didn't particularly want to go, but the civilians stayed away from the bandits and it was deep into the forest so pirates might not venture that far in if they arrive. So, they did as they were told, and started living with the bandits again, even if it was just temporary. They didn't go back to the treehouse even though they wanted some of their stuff. It wasn't safe, and they would stay safe so Luffy wouldn't worry or be upset.

-x-

Luffy had his own bed in Garp's room on the marine ship. His bed was huge and Luffy's was a normal size. There were also clothes for him, having been bought on the way to the Red Line and out of the Grand Line, which was where they were heading. The Grand Line was honestly more safe for Luffy than here at the moment.

The boy enjoyed the variety of food made for him. Different than just cooked meat or fruits. He had freshly baked bread and other types of yummy foods. It distracted him from missing his brothers, and also kept him unaware of the stress that was felt by almost everyone on the ship.

Pirates had reached most islands by the week after Luffy departed. He called Ace and Sabo every night before bed, telling them about his adventures on the big ship. He wasn't going to be bored anytime soon as Garp had activities set up for him to help him learn his powers.

Luffy's first request was the cook-cook fruit. So, Garp humored him and had him study cooked food from the kitchen, tasting them, feeling the texture, smell, etc.

Luffy was a slow learner, but Garp couldn't fault him as he was only four years old for goodness's sake. He did do his duties as the captain of the ship and his marine crew, even if they had another vice-admiral on board. Garp had handpicked Momonga to come with him. He would have chosen Aokiji, as he was the best with kids, but he was busy fighting off the pirates attacking the defenseless islands in the East blue.

Garp wasn't happy with but had been expecting the lower ranked marines to not be happy Luffy was with them, even though they knew his importance not only to Garp but to everyone. And keeping him safe and hidden was the number one mission they'd ever had before. But, a child was distracting. Especially one who kept showing off possibly dangerous powers. They wanted Luffy to hurry up and learn so he wasn't more of a liability than he already was.

Garp, of course, was infatuated with Luffy. he always had been but had put his job before Luffy. Maybe that had been a mistake, but he didn't want to leave the marines. Why couldn't his son have been useful and not a criminal?

But, the man still did his job, even if it was made easier by having a second vice-admiral to help in case the ship was attacked by any pirates. Many crews were already slaughtered or defeated, but there were three powerhouses there. One more had arrived much later than the others. So, now there were two yonko ships in the East Blue. Kaido had sent some of his subordinates out to find the fruit. He didn't want to eat it, because he already had a fruit, but he didn't want anyone else to have it.

So, with Kaido's influence now in the East Blue, the marines on the ship grew even more uncomfortable having Luffy on the ship. The faster they got back to Marineford, the better. It would take some time, so hopefully word doesn't get out about someone eating it, that someone being with them.

-x-

Three days after Luffy left the island, and was heading with grampa to the Grand Line, word came out that it was now known that someone had eaten the fruit. Garp didn't tell Luffy about Goa having been attacked. Foosha village had been attacked, too, but Makino had answered the den den mushi and told Garp what had happened.

One of Doflamingo's allied ships had attacked the island, and had killed many people, nobles or otherwise. Foosha had been mostly left alone after they got their answer from the drunkard who had witnessed Luffy use a diamond power. Everyone knew Jozu from the Whitebeard Pirates had that fruit, so it was clear that the kid had eaten the all-all fruit.

Luckily for Foosha, hearing that a marine vessel had left three days ago made them in a hurry to get back out to sea. Makino was alive, as were the bandits and Ace and Sabo. Garp couldn't be more relieved, even if multiple people he knew had been killed and the marine vessel that had been stationed there obliterated.

But, now Doflamingo's crews knew about the marine ship housing the person everyone was after. Now they were in a race to get to the Red Line. The marine ship was days ahead of Doflamingo's, but they could catch up. Even the East Blue could be fickle. It was an ocean, after all.

One day later, word of the ship holding the powerhouses from Totto Land getting in a battle with the ship that had attacked Dawn Island, and destroying it to sink to the bottom of the sea. Garp and Momonga knew that the Big Mom crew now knew what Doflamingo knew. And another ship would be tailing them.

The marines were downright scared now, jumpy from every little thing. Every sound from the sea. They were more afraid of Katakuri because Doflamingo would be submitting his resignation of the Warlords if he attacked the marine ship. But, Garp and Momonga didn't trust that to stop the man from having his crew attack them and then coming for whoever was left after that.

Katakuri would have no problem attacking the marine vessel and killing everyone on board. He was already a wanted man, with one of the highest bounties in the world, so what would killing some important marines do? Add to the bounty, which he would not be upset about. And he would get Luffy. Big Mom would get the next future powerhouse and be able to raise him as a human weapon, like the rest of her children.

Garp would never want Luffy to have to be part of that family. He was young enough to be assimilated and easily brainwashed to believe he was part of that family and crew. The toddler was so vulnerable. He had to be taken care of by someone responsible, and for now that was Garp. Ace and Sabo could only go so far as children themselves. And Garp didn't blame them for this. Luffy hadn't known it was a devil fruit, and according to the boys, they didn't know anything about devil fruits before the fiasco either.

It was bedtime and Luffy was lounging on Garp's lap, his thumb in his mouth. He was wrapped in a thick and warm blanket. During all of this possible stress on Luffy, Garp wanted to make it as easy as possible for him to get somewhere safe. He was to be protected and shielded from what type of situation he was really in. That multiple presences, bad or good, wanted to have him for their own agenda.

Garp was telling Luffy stories about his marine days, though they were heavily censored and mostly spoke only about the love and family he found in the marines. He wasn't trying to brainwash Luffy like Ace would definitely say, but instill good beliefs about law and order and the family that could be brought together from it.

Like the last three days, Luffy turned into a mochi blob after falling asleep. Garp honestly wondered what devil fruit users thought of sharing powers. Those who werent after the all-all fruit and now its user, what did they think? Especially, what did _Whitebeard _think? He was said to be the strongest man in the world yet another now had his power, whether he could use it or not. Did that wound the man's pride?

Garp would say no to that. Whitebeard took most pride in his family. Sharing a fruit with someone who was much less adept at using it shouldn't bother him. Despite being a pirate, Garp had respect for the man's ideals and beliefs about family.

After tucking Luffy into bed, Garp turned the nightlight on and closed the bedroom door quietly behind him. Luffy slept peacefully for most of the night, only waking from becoming so blobby that his leg stretched and flopped off of the bed. Just for a second, he was scared and called out for Ace and Sabo before he really woke up and remembered they werent there. Wouldn't be there for awhile. It made him sad, but he did his best to shake off the sad feeling because he didn't like it, and went back to bed, now sucking on a candy-coated thumb, which he didn't do on purpose but still enjoyed.

Luffy slept peacefully until the sun rose and woke up to Garp getting dressed, looking tense. Luffy wasn't the best at noticing social cues, so he didn't see the pinched look on Garp's face. "Grampa?" Luffy asked, getting out of bed. "What's for breakfast?" He dragged the blanket behind him as he walked to the man.

"Today, you're going to be staying in here," Garp said with a grin plastered on his face. Luffy made a small "uh?" sound, wondering why he couldn't go back outside. "It's bad weather outside right now," the vice-admiral said. Luffy believed him, because why wouldn't he? He dropped the blanket on the floor and went to his little closet to change outfits.

"I wanna talk to Ace and Sabo. I miss them," Luffy said, his shirt on backwards and shorts unzipped. Garp fixed the clothes up and brought the den den mushi down to Luffy's level.

"I'm sure they'll be happy to talk to you," Garp replied. He had already checked in on them earlier to see how the island was faring. Goa was in shambles, but Ace and Sabo were safe. Foosha village was being repaired as best as they could with who they had.

Ace answered the snail immediately. "_Luffy?"_ he asked.

"Yeah! I had a bad dream and woke up and missed you guys."

"_We miss you, too, Lu," _Sabo's voice said. Luffy and his brothers exchanged a very scripted conversation. Garp had told the brothers where they stood in their way of escaping the East Blue safely. It wasn't looking good at all, but everyone kept their secrets around Luffy. Who knows what would happen if he had a melt down or panic attack? He might unleash the quake-quake fruit and destroy the entire marine ship he was staying on. Everything was too unpredictable.

The marines didn't know where the leak in the information was coming from, but everyone knew now that the all-all fruit had been eaten by a child. The pirates were adapting their plans, and Garp had those in the New World confirm that more pirates were heading to try and intercept Luffy's path. Devil fruit users of all kinds were trying to meet up with their captains or in one case, siblings, to try and get Luffy safely.

It was clear that none of the big guns wanted Luffy dead, or they wouldn't be calling in certain members of their crews or families. Many of Big Mom's crew had unknown devil fruits and no bounties, considering how many of them there was, which was a big concern for the marines.

Things were looking grim. The three marine vessels were being followed from behind and were heading towards a single point that was the only way back into the Grand Line. And many pirates could be waiting to ambush them there. They still had a few more days before the relative "safety" of being on the Grand Line. Easier to avoid another crew on the harsh waters, letting weather and other Grand Line occurrences make some distance. In the East Blue, the weather was steady and there were no crazy or unpredictable occurrences, and there were rarely any sea kings.

It was a bit weird to think of the Grand Line as _safer _for anyone, but in this situation, it would benefit the marines. But, they would have to get through Reverse Mountain in one piece, with Luffy still with them so they can make a break for it and regroup with other marine vessels to keep Luffy safer.

It couldn't be avoided, though, if they were being waited for on the other side of the Red Line. They just had to hope for the best and do as well as they possibly could to keep the ships and Luffy safe.

Ace and Sabo kept Luffy busy for awhile while Garp went to get the boy some breakfast, for once his own appetite not present. He was too nervous to eat anything, even if he would need the strength later. But, he wanted to seem stable and strong for Luffy, even if he was a bit afraid of what would happen to Luffy if he got caught.

Though there was no real storm, the two did stay inside most of the day. Garp left twice to go on some business and left some random marine to babysit Luffy. It was difficult for those who didn't have patience, as Luffy was now enthralled with his powers and made messes everywhere, ruining the sheets on Garp's bed by covering it in thick soap bubbles and then tried making some food that just came out as goop that stuck to the wet sheets.

Luffy didn't pick up the cues that the marine babysitting him wasn't happy with Luffy, and was also nervous like Garp was. Instead, he babbled about what he wanted to do first when he learned how to use his powers.

"I'm gonna make Ace an' Sabo-". But he was unable to finish as he was cut off with a blaring alarm going off. "What is it?" he asked curiously. The marine shouted at him to stay put and not leave the room. Crashes were heard and shouting began, along with the loud scraping sound of wood against wood.

Luffy looked at the new closed bedroom door, wondering what was happening and where grampa went. He turned to the side to go pick up the snail and try and talk to Ace and Sabo since grampa was busy, but met an unexpected woman in the room.

"Hello, little boy. Do you want to see a magic trick?" the woman cackled. She was much taller than Luffy, and had one hand in the mirror.

"Sure!" Luffy cheered, and hurried to the bed and picked up his stuffed animal, before easily following the new woman into the large mirror in the room. Which then shattered, leaving the room empty and quiet.

* * *

**And the Big Mom pirates make their entrance!**


	4. Mind Wipe Part 1

**ethanmaloney62: I mean, it does say Charlotte Katakuri in the characters below the summary. I've never written a beast pirates one because we don't know them personally much. Plus, my favorite villains mostly come from the Big Mom pirates so I used them. And I love Katakuri, no matter what light I paint him in in ****this ****fic.**

* * *

**This chapter is darker. And it will continue to get darker, as this is nothing like my young Luffy on Whitebeard crew fics. Enjoy~**

* * *

Taking the kid was easier than anyone could have imagined. Katakuri hadn't even been planning this far ahead before the kid was already in the Mirror World. Garp the Fist wasn't happy when he heard about the boy, Luffy, already being gone even if he ran back to the room the kid was staying in.

But, that didn't matter much as Katakuri had left with his siblings and subordinates while the marine vessel sunk into the calm East Blue. No one would be coming after the kid anymore. At least not that he knew of.

When Katakuri and the rest of his siblings entered the Mirror World, they saw Luffy interacting with a mirror that had a frog in it, completely trusting of all of the strangers who had just taken him from the ship he'd been living on. But really, the kid had to be younger than four, so everyone expected it would be easy to distract him and convince him they were the good guys.

They had it even easier with the likes of Pudding. She was still in the New World, far from them, but could come to visit through the Mirror World. She was planned to arrive soon, after notifying Mama that they got the boy. Luffy looked like he was well taken care of, clean and with the right amount of chubbiness for his young age. The Charlottes would be taking good care of him, too. Raising him as their own to become possibly the strongest member of the family.

It would have been so much harder to deal with him if he had been older, or raised in a way that taught him strangers were dangerous. Compared to the children in the Charlotte family, and those who had been children long ago, Luffy was noisy and boisterous. After his brainwashing, they wondered if he would still be so cheery.

But, they would keep him as happy as possible. Nurturing and pruning this child to perfection was important. A new task, a long term one as well. With many still after him, including marines now that they sunk Vice Admiral Garp and Momonga to the bottom of the East Blue, he would need to be kept close to the family for now. He needed to learn that he could trust no one but the family, as all of them did.

Luffy looked up at Katakuri with a gaping mouth. Oven was on their ship, not in the Mirror World. Amande watched from a distance, looking at the boy in skepticism. Katakuri was by far the largest person he had ever seen, and it showed on his face. Katakuri did his best not to give off bad vibes to the kid, not knowing how he would react to someone who looked like Katakuri. But, he wasn't afraid of Brulee's odd appearance. He'd need to get used to that.

"You are very big, even more than grampa," Luffy said conversationally. Katakuri crouched down in front of him and reached out a hand.

"My name is Katakuri. Grampa has left you in our care. There were some bad people on the ship, and we need to keep you safe," Katakuri explained patiently, though in the cold voice he used for everyone.

"Oh! Then you're a good guy," Luffy observed. A few of the Charlottes, minor and supportive ones, chuckled behind Luffy's back. No, they were not _good guys_. And Luffy wouldn't be either.

Luffy was easy to entertain while waiting for Pudding to arrive. Katakuri kept his attention focused on him and his mochi sculpting, which Luffy tried to do, very interested to meet another devil fruit user. He clearly didn't have good control over any of his fruits, but he was very new to it. At least he could function properly and wasn't crippled by the variety of powers he now had.

As of now, they planned to carefully teach him how to use the most useful abilities. Not all were needed. No one needed to turn into hundreds of tiny balls. But, big ones would be the most useful. Including the Whitebeard Pirates' fruits, Donquixote Pirates' and more.

Whitebeard's power _especially._ Though that was agreed to wait until he was much older so he didn't accidentally destroy all of Totto Land. Everyone, including Mama, agreed that this would be one of the most important missions and they had to do it right. They couldn't just toss Luffy into the daycare room with the other younger children.

They still hadn't figured out who would be doing what, but this could only be trusted with someone or someones who were blood relatives of Linlin. Katakuri humored the boy until Pudding arrived, wearing her fake smile and third eye hidden under her bangs. Luffy looked up curiously when some new people started walking towards him.

"Luffy, why don't you sit down?" Katakuri asked, forming a hardened mochi chair just the right height for him. Luffy nodded and sat down, wondering what would happen next. The new lady stood in front of him with a warm smile.

"Hello, I'm Pudding. You're going to feel a little off for a minute, but don't worry about it," she said kindly. Luffy nodded and was about to reply with something before Pudding's hand shot forward and embedded itself into Luffy's head. His eyes went wide and vacant as Pudding pulled out reel after reel of memory, tossing them to the ground.

There were two very prominent people in most of his memories. A blonde haired boy and a kid with black hair and freckles. It was lucky that Luffy was so young so there weren't decades of memories to take away. Drool formed from the side of Luffy's mouth as he stared forwards while his life story was ripped from him to make someone new. Someone different.

Pudding had to remove most of his explicit memories. They let him keep his name, just erased the full one. Now he was just Luffy. Not Monkey D. Just Luffy. Because Luffy was so young, and didn't remember his infant times, it didn't take as long as they would have thought to wipe his memory. Only half an hour.

Pudding didn't have any new memories to give him, so they would just start over. Luffy would start from scratch with life memories, while he still kept the memory of how to speak and function in other ways.

After Pudding was done, Luffy passed out cold. His eyes were still wide open and unseeing so she closed then gently. She turned to Katakrui and asked when he wanted to take Luffy back home. How that would work, as they were still technically all the way in the East Blue.

"We'll have him brought home through the Mirror World. Don't want to risk losing him on our way back the long way," Katakuri explained. "Doflamingo and his cronies are still out here. Along with Kaido's crews. If we lose him Mama will be furious. I and my crew will take the long way around and bring our ships back home.

"I would recommend not introducing him to the rest until he trusts a few of us," the mochi man said. "Don't want to ruin it from the start and then risk taking too many memories without needing to." Pudding nodded her head and picked up the limp toddler, handing the teddy bear that looked like it came from the garbage to Brulee to carry.

"Be careful, brother," Pudding said before following after Brulee to the mirror she came from her home. That's where Luffy would be going for now. He had no home to return to, even if he was supposed to have always been a Charlotte child. It was a good thing most of the older children were great actors because no one knew how this boy would react to having no memories of anything, being thrust into the arms of strangers. Many who are frightening looking. It would be played by ear for now.

When the three reached the right mirror, Pudding went to her bedroom above her bakery and sweet shop and tucked Luffy in. For good measure, she took the teddy bear away and into her dresser. His memory wipe was still raw, so it was best not to have anything familiar besides the clothes he was wearing.

-x-

Word got out quick that the hunt for the all-all fruit user was over and there was a winner. Marine HQ had been called during the attack on the vessel that held the vice-admirals and the boy and it was reported that Big Mom pirates had gotten to them first. The higher ups had no doubt the boy had been taken. Katakuri, and none of the Charlottes, were reckless or messy in their missions.

No one had seen Luffy taken, but there was no other outcome. They wouldn't have let their prize and goal die during the fighting. The Big Mom pirates were smart because they had to be. Stupid mistakes get people killed in the yonko's land.

Luckily for those living in the East Blue, it was now considered worthless to be there anymore, and the pirates all left to go back to the New World, upset that they'd come all this way only to lose the fight and not get the kid to make their own. Many crews had been wiped out in the East Blue, though, during this whole fiasco.

Even with the tragedy that was Garp's presumed death and Luffy's kidnapping, Ace and Sabo didn't lose hope. They had no way to get back to Luffy anytime soon, but they would find him some day and bring him home. His home was anywhere Ace and Sabo were. Not only did they now want to be pirates for freedom and fun, but the pirate world was now where Luffy was and would be for awhile. Though, they were both scared of what kind of people would be raising Luffy, and how they would do it. Hearing of an evil Luffy would be soul-crushing. They would do their best to get stronger for now, and look for powerful connections once they set sail, together now.

-x-

Luffy woke up in a fluffy bed, a horrible headache throbbing in his head. He was disoriented for a moment before he felt… wrong. Where was he? He didn't recognize this place at all. He didn't remember what he was doing before sleeping. He was suddenly scared. He was alone and someplace he didn't recognize.

But what was scarier was that he didn't know if he'd recognize anything. He couldn't remember _anything. _He knew his name, though. But where did he come from, and what was he doing before being in this unfamiliar room? He pulled the covers up over his head, not wanting to see the unknown place, and was trying to remember anything. But all that happened was a sharp pain in his head.

Tears blurred his eyes, and soon the bed was soaking wet with foamy bubbles. He screamed and jumped out of the bed, leaving a trail of bubbles after him. It looked like someone dumped a whole bottle of bath bubbles on the bed. He hoped he wouldn't get in trouble.

He heard some steps come up the stairs outside the closed bedroom door and Luffy hid behind the side of the bed not visible from the entrance. He didn't know who was coming up, or how they would react to his mess he didn't mean to make.

The door opened slowly, but Luffy didn't see who it was, as he was still behind the bed. But, he didn't hear any angry yells or shouts, so he peeked his head above the surface of the bed to see a woman, younger but much older than he was, look at the bed in puzzlement for a moment. Then she focused her attention on Luffy. She looked uneasy for a second, but the look disappeared so quickly Luffy might have imagined it.

"What's wrong, Luffy?" she asked. Luffy didn't answer for a full minute, not knowing what to respond, before he mumbled, "Where am I? Who are you?"

"You're at my home. I'm Pudding, your big sister. You hit your head when playing on the playground, so you wont remember a lot of things. But you'll be okay. Are you hungry?" Pudding asked kindly. Luffy's stomach rumbled at the thought of food and he slowly nodded, but didn't come out from behind the bed.

"Are you mad about the mess?" Luffy asked quietly, looking to the foamy mess on the bed. Pudding smiled, one that showed she was a bit irritated, but Luffy didn't recognize the look.

"Was it an accident?" Pudding questioned. Luffy nodded. "Then I'm not mad. I just have to wash the sheets." She'll have to work on the mattress that was probably soaked through. Luffy then asked what had happened. Why he let loose so much soap all over the bed. "Why don't we talk downstairs while you can have some food?"

Luffy slowly creeped out from behind the bed and walked to Pudding and followed her down the stairs carefully. She picked him up after asking if she could and set him on a wooden chair at the table. She made him a sandwich and a single brownie as a treat.

"So... what happened?" Luffy asked through the food he was scarfing down rather messily. Pudding explained that he had eaten a devil fruit not long ago, and described what it was and what weaknesses devil fruits had. Luffy was amazed but also afraid of his new power. What if something bad happened from it? Worse than making a soapy mess?

The boy asked if he lived with Pudding, who said that Luffy had been in the hospital for awhile and needed to find someplace new to stay. "Our family has many members, and they'll all be happy to see you have woken up, even if you don't remember them. You'll just have to meet them all again. It'll be fun. Then you can meet Mama once she isn't so busy."

"'Mama'?" Luffy questioned. For some reason, having a mama sounded strange to him. Pudding nodded in response.

"Mama is the ruler of Totto Land, our home. We're both her children, along with all of our siblings. You are the youngest right now."

"Do we live with mama?" Luffy wondered. Pudding shook her head and patiently explained how things were in Totto Land, leaving out all of the negative aspects and the cruelty the yonko could do to her own children. Though, Pudding doubted that Mama would hurt Luffy. He was too valuable to have hate her or any of the family. Not when he would grow to be able to use his powers and possibly destroy the whole island chain or even the world.

Luffy was a huge liability, but under the right training, he would learn to control the fruit. It was both bad and good he was so young while eating it. Good because he had a long time to learn and a head start, but bad because he was still so young and could make mistakes, intentional or not. Though, Big Mom often destroyed her own territory when demanding a certain food.

The boy ate the brownie slowly, wondering if he would ever remember before. But, his sister was telling him he'd be okay, so he would try not to worry. Pudding kept him distracted with talking about each of her siblings, and now Luffy's, but only in good light. Didn't mention their temper, or the younger ones chasing each other with knives, or how cruel some of the Charlottes could be.

So far, from what Pudding has seen, Luffy was sensitive. He was scared, and wary about where he was. A stark contrast to the vibe she got from him when she first saw him. He had seemed to be happy and cheerful before the memory wipe. Probably because of how many experiences were taken away, his personality was changed.

Hopefully that wouldn't become a problem. She hadn't thrown the memories away, they were stored in a box with Katakuri. Like his trident, he was hiding the box in his body for safe keeping, making sure there was no way Luffy could retrieve them and ruin the plan that was still unfolding.

After eating, Luffy looked extremely uncomfortable around Pudding, despite now thinking she was his older sister. Maybe because she wasn't very understanding about Luffy being nervous of all the powers. He did understand now that it was a big deal. He looked forward to being able to control all of them, but until then he was a bit nervous. It was a stark contrast to how he was before his memories were stolen from him.

"Do you like to draw? I have some paper," Pudding offered. Luffy looked puzzled.

"I… don't know," he said sadly, trying to remember anything, but it just wasn't working. "Can I try?" he asked timidly. Pudding got him a wax pastel and some plain paper to draw on. She was a bit bored of supervising, since she was never one to babysit the younger kids because of how nasty she could suddenly get.

She couldnt imagine being Perospero or Compote and only having children as siblings. Taking care of them since the day all of them were born. However, many of the older siblings didn't end up hating it, they were just very busy so the supervising was left to the middle children who werent too young but also weren't powerhouses that had a lot of responsibilities for both the crew and family.

Luffy attempted to draw on the paper, but it kept moving around on the hardwood floor, making him a bit frustrated. He used his other hand to hold the paper down before he felt something sticky on his hand. He pulled it up, bringing the piece of paper up with him. Some sort of green goop had come from his hand and was now sticky.

He looked up to see if he was in trouble, but Pudding wasn't looking. He rubbed it on his shorts, not wanting to get it on the floor. Pudding may be his sister, but he didn't want her to get angry. He didn't know how she would react.

The boy felt so alone and empty. He didn't recognize his family, or where he was. All he knew was his name was Luffy. And now some information from Pudding. What were his hobbies? What did he like to do? What food did he enjoy eating most? He hated feeling like this, but he was a stranger in his own life.

Why did he have to hit his head? It was stupid. He pouted as he drew on the paper, doing his best to not make the goop again. He drew what he felt on the paper, even if it looked like circles and squares to anyone else. He only had one color, but he still felt it was how he felt.

Part of him wanted to show it to Pudding, but she was practically a stranger, and he didn't want to be told his drawing was stupid. He didn't have any more room on his paper to draw, but didn't want to ask for more. He just wanted to go take a nap and try to remember in his sleep. "Pudding? Can I take a nap?" he asked quietly.

"Sure, Luffy," she said. Pudding was perfectly nice, but still, she was a stranger. "I'll show you to the couch." Luffy almost reached to hold her hand, but thought better of it. Plus, his hand was still a little sticky. The couch was really fluffy, and she helped lift him up, since it was a high couch.

He fell asleep easily. Pudding was the one to see him turn into a blob of mochi, recognizing her brother's ability. She wondered if he would ever learn her power. And how would that affect the memory wipe? Could he restore his own memory? She'd talk to someone about that, having that power be one of the last ones. Mama wanted to have him be able to control all of his powers.

She put a blanket over him, hoping he wouldn't ruin this one, too. Really, she wasn't the right person to be babysitting him. And how long would she have to? At least a couple more weeks until her siblings got back and they could form a real plan on how to move forward. The general idea was simple, but it was still another kid to raise.

Most of the family didn't know about the plan yet, as it was only known a few days ago that Luffy had, unfortunately for him, eaten the coveted devil fruit. So, they would be surprised by the news about the "adopted" child, who is now being told he is a biological descendent of Big Mom. Outsiders were generally not very inclusively welcomed, but things needed to be different with this situation.

Pudding was in the dining room, where there was a window in the wall for her to still see Luffy and if he was still sleeping or if anything else weird had happened with him. Besides now being a white blob. Honestly, Katakuri wasn't a very humorous man, but even he would find this entertaining. Might remind him of the instability he dealt with when he first ate the mochi-mochi fruit.

At the time he ate it, he was the only family member to have a devil fruit. And Mama hadn't helped him out with it. He'd figured it out himself, even though it took many years to use it well and decades to awaken it to its fullest. Perhaps he would be a good mentor for Luffy. If he showed that he welcomed the boy, then the rest of the family, who many were obsessed with him, might be more inclined to accept Luffy's presence and importance.

Pudding could see some potential problems with some of the family. The oldest ones might think he is not worth it based on their own views on the situation and current family strength, while the younger ones were all taught that blood matters, and had watched countless husbands tossed aside, exiled or killed.

It gave Pudding a lot to think about while Luffy napped. She had forgotten how long young children would sleep during the day since she wasn't involved with her younger brothers and sisters. But, at least she didn't have to entertain him or try and be fake-nice.

* * *

**Poor Luffy. :( Review!**


	5. What To Do With Luffy

**Merry Christmas/happy holidays everyone! Here's a new chapter. Enjoy~**

* * *

"Mama, we got him easily," Katakuri said to Big Mom's personalized den den mushi. "He just walked into the mirror with Brulee without a second thought. It took less than an hour for Pudding to wipe his memory."

"_Ma- mama! What is he like? This Luffy," _the snail asked. Katakuri could picture Mama leaning forward in her chair while asking the question. There really wasn't much to go on on how Luffy would be after the memory wipe. Especially after one so intense and thorough. So, he honestly answered that it was too soon to tell for him.

"Pudding is the one who is taking care of him until we all get back to have a real discussion on what to do. How to do this. The easy part, I think, is over. We did run into one of Doflamingo's ships, but sunk it. I hope that doesn't make you angry, Mama," Katakuri said in his bland voice, though he was sincere about not wanting to have upset Big Mom.

"_I'm not mad. Doflamingo doesn't care about his subordinate crews, it won't matter to him. What matters is that we got the kid first, and we won't be letting this chance slip through our fingers," _Big Mom said. Katakuri heard what he assumed was her shoving a piece of cake into her mouth. "_This should keep things interesting," _she added.

"Honestly, having someone so young eat it is the best part of it all. Yes, we will have to take care of a child that is not one of our own, but he's so easily moldable now, especially after the memory wipe," Katakuri replied, bringing the snail into his room since it was late, and he was getting ready for bed. Despite what some people thought, Katakuri did sleep on his back, he didn't sleep in a chair.

"_You sound interested…" _Big Mom said, sounding more curious than suspicious. She was in a good mood today. After all, they'd beaten Kaido, Doflamingo, the marines and every other small crew by getting to Luffy first.

"I am interested in what will happen in the future. I wonder if he will develop different moves than our own family has," Katakuri voiced truthfully. "You are right. This should make things interesting."

The call was hung up and Katakuri put the snail back in its case and went to bed, wishing they could just beam back to Totto Land, and not have to fight off marines coming after them for killing their members and taking the very valuable, liable treasure that was the young child. Katakuri wondered if he had any other family besides Garp. Well, even if anyone came looking for him, his memories of his old life were not in his reach.

Even if he came across a real family member in person, he shouldn't be able to recognize them in any way. It was absolute brainwash, and it was very convenient. They had never done it to someone so young, who also had the potential of using the very ability that was used against him, so he was even more curious about the outcome of this mission.

-x-

Luffy spent the next couple of days following Pudding around reluctantly, trying to remember anything about himself or his life. He did his best to hide whatever powers unintentionally happened because he didn't want to get in trouble with the only person he felt he had ever met. Even if he had lots of family, like Pudding said, he didn't feel like he did.

But, the boy did his very best to try and keep his focus on other things. One mainly being to hide what he could do in public. He was shown around Pudding's home island, being carried most of the time because Pudding was impatient with his tiny legs. Many people looked at the duo strangely, since they had never seen this little boy and no child with Pudding.

Luffy didn't seem to notice this, which Pudding was glad of. She didn't want him asking any questions that might be too revealing. Like why no one seemed to know who he was despite being told he was part of a well-known and important family. Pudding told him about the Charlottes as if they were royalty, not including the fact that they were actually pirates.

Even if Luffy didn't know what pirates were before, he wouldn't now and Pudding didn't feel like doing extra work. She had been contacted by Big Mom, who refrained from meeting her supposed child who just woke up after a head injury, as she didn't want to scare her new asset too early.

This situation was an example of whether being loved or feared was better. Would Luffy adjust better to them by being cared for, or would he fall in line and do what Mama and the others said out of fear of the consequences of not doing what he was told? That would be debated in a meeting between the actual important members of the family and Big Mom. There still was awhile before Katakuri and the rest returned.

And since it was such short notice about a new member of the family being brought, many of the crew were gone on other missions. Of course, word had gotten out to those not present about what had happened. Many of the Charlottes that were in Totto Land weren't informed of the development yet. Just knew by the papers that the Big Mom pirates had ultimately been the one to get the fruit user.

Even if he was still on the ship, no one wanting the boy would dare try and raid the yonko ship. The name of Big Mom made everything easier in situations like this, though Katakuri knew some of his crew at the moment would enjoy fighting seasoned pirates and not the wanna-bes they came across.

But, no one attacked their ship, and even marines were hesitant to do so. Especially after they had sunk a marine ship that had vice admirals on it. Katakuri wouldn't be surprised if admirals come after them, or if the marines just brush it off completely and forget about them. The marines saw each other as disposable as Mama saw some of her children.

-x-

"You really think that kid can fit in with us all?" Oven asked Katakuri a few days later. They were both eager to get back home and in the know about what to do from now on concerning their valuable "prisoner". He took a long sip of his sake. "You know many won't welcome him. Mama has raised us all to think no one is as valuable as blood relations."

Katakuri didn't answer for a moment. "If they don't accept him, Mama will kill them. This is too important to be screwed up by the younger generations. I know the older can act pretty well, as we do it for a living, don't we? Try to act caring and kind to our citizens, yet we all secretly dislike most of them."

Oven nodded in agreement. What Katakuri had said was true. Pudding was special as being one of the best actors while also being one of the youngest in the family. She was one of Mama's favorites for many reasons, and her acting prowess was one of them.

"I hope the kid isn't too damaged from the memory wipe. Never done one that intense before," Oven replied, tossing his empty bottle over the side of the ship and into the water. "I wonder if we could have taken him and had him keep his memories. He's at most four years old."

"Precaution. No one knows anything about him, so why not start over fresh? Even if he doesn't have any replacement memories, he'll forget all about not knowing anything about himself by us distracting him well enough," Katakuri said nonchalantly.

"Who do you think will end up being in charge of teaching him how to master control?" Oven asked. No one had planned about this yet. It may be a single person or multiple people. It all depended on what Mama thought of Luffy.

"Most likely one of the devil fruit users. There are plenty to choose from, but I can't see choosing one of the younger ones as his mentor or caretaker," the sweet commander replied, drinking his own booze slowly. It was a calm day and no bad weather or enemy ship in sight. Not that either brother thought anyone in Paradise would have the courage and idiocy to attack a yonko's ship.

"Yeah, I would assume that as well. And it'll have to be one of us that Mama has a lot of trust and faith in. Someone she thinks can handle the challenge, or not. It could be the easiest job in the world."

"Or the hardest," Katakuri pointed out. "After all, I don't see this going as all of our childhoods' have gone. Tossed into a daycare to play or fight each other and gradually grow strong enough that Mama would choose favorites. We got along just fine doing it that way, but we were disposable children. Luffy isn't. There is no replacing him or his power."

"I guess," Oven said. "I'm bored," he commented, leaning against the wall of the cabin. "This kind of mission sucks. I don't get to kill anyone." Katakuri sighed and closed his eyes.

"You do realize we killed multiple crews, including a marine vessel? What more do you want?"

"Carnage. Torture. More booze," Oven answered in a grunt.

"Then I don't know what to tell you." Katakuri stood up, making sure to adjust his scarf to keep his gruesome mouth hidden. "I'm going to call Pudding and ask how things are going," he announced and left a grouchy brother on deck, heading inside and to the communications room.

He dialled Pudding's den den mushi, which picked up relatively quickly, meaning she was home and not out and about. "_Hello?"_ she asked.

"It's me," Katakuri replied. His voice was distinct enough to be recognized easily. "I want to check in and see how Luffy is doing." It was more of a statement than a question. He was curious, but he was also wanting to know how the mission was going, since it wasn't deemed over until they returned to Totto Land to give Mama the full report and discuss what to do next.

"_He's very shy and uncertain," _Pudding answered. Katakuri was a bit surprised at first, considering how boisterous he'd been before, but his entire past was gone, so wouldn't it be expected for there to be significant changes?

"Has he showed any of his powers?" Katakuri asked.

"_Yes. I know he's been trying to hide it from me, but he's used multiple powers on accident. The one he most often has happen is actually your power. Every time he sleeps, he turns into a mochi blob," _Pudding explained. She laughed a little bit at it.

Katakuri had never turned into a complete blob or anything, but he had had trouble keeping his arms solid, which was the most annoying part of the devil fruit. So, at least Luffy didn't have to deal with it while he was awake.

"How is he handling not having any memories?" He didn't say anything about them taking them away, since he didn't know if Luffy was in the room or able to hear Pudding's conversation. He still had to be with her, because even if she didn't like kids, she wouldn't disobey Mama.

"_He's having trouble with that. He doesn't remember any of his family and will have to be reintroduced to everyone." _This proved Luffy in in earshot since she had said the lie so sincerely. "_When do you think you and the others will be back?" _

"Shouldn't be too long. A week more at least." He heard Pudding sigh on the other end.

"_When can I introduce him to everyone else?" _she asked exasperatedly. Pudding really didn't like kids and was only keeping Luffy with her on default because she knew the consequences of her powers the most. But Katakuri didn't know if Mama had told everyone yet.

"Wait a little longer," he said.

"_Alright," _Pudding replied in a slightly annoyed tone of voice. Katakuri hoped she didn't ruin it by being the first to meet Luffy and giving off a bad impression. Or if she slipped into her sadistic side and was mean to the kid. Katakuri wasn't too surprised with the personality change to be honest. They all knew there would be consequences, but he was convinced that in the long run, it was a benefit to the plan.

-x-

After Pudding hung up the den den mushi, she turned to see Luffy peeking around the corner, clearly having been listening. Pudding already knew, since he wasn't the quietest breather. He was a child, so he wouldn't have haki yet. She was used to most of her siblings knowing haki. Luffy asked who she was talking to, curious since he knew they had been talking about him.

"That was one of our oldest brothers, Katakuri," Pudding answered. Luffy made a small "oh" sound and then nodded, walking back to the couch to look at a picture book Pudding had gotten from the small library on her island. Luffy didn't remember, but he'd never had picture books like this. Ace and Sabo just told him stories, didn't read them to him or show him pictures, but he didn't remember any of that.

After finishing looking at the picture book, since he couldn't read the small amount of words on each page, he asked Pudding if he could draw again. She gave him a pad of paper and a small pack of wax pastels she had bought for him.

It hadn't clicked for him to put something heavy on the corners of the page so he could draw without the paper moving around, and he didn't want to use the sticky stuff he hadn't seen since he first used it on accident. So, he was frustrated with it again, but kept drawing because it was the only way he felt he could express his feelings. Pudding didn't look like she wanted to talk to him about how sad he was. That just made him more miserable and lonely.

When he was just about to take a break from his drawing because he'd ripped the paper, he felt something ticklish on his arms before two more hands pressed down on the top corners of the paper. He now had four arms. He almost shouted in surprise, but didn't want Pudding to know about it, and kept quiet.

But, out of the powers he'd seen so far, this one was by far the most useful. He forgot about the paper and sat down against the wall where Pudding couldn't see him and played around with the extra arms. It was a good distraction. He looked surprised when the arms disappeared and pink petals came out, and then disappeared once hitting the floor.

Then, he thought for the first time that he knew of, maybe having all of these powers wasn't a bad thing. Maybe he _could _master them all. He stood up and walked to the kitchen, where Pudding was cooking something made of chocolate. "Pudding?"

"Yes?" she asked, though kept her eyes on what she was doing.

"Can you tell me what powers I have?" he asked.

"How about when I'm done with the mixing and put the batter in the oven?" she offered. Luffy agreed and then headed back into the living room to climb onto the couch. Luffy waited patiently for her to finish, not wanting to be a bother. Pudding seemed really nice, but there was something about her that put Luffy on edge and uncomfortable. He didn't know what it was, and felt bad about it since she was so nice to him. But he couldn't shake the feeling.

Pudding came into the living room, leaving the brownie mix to bake in the oven, holding a long list she'd been given before bringing Luffy back. The two had talked about them briefly, but Luffy had been uncomfortable hearing the whole list after the quake-quake fruit was mentioned and scared him off.

Pudding read out all of the abilities blanketed under the all-all paramecia, and explained their powers. Hearing all of the useful powers, and not dangerous ones, made him feel a bit better about the situation. He couldn't wait to make his own food, once he knew what kinds of food he liked a lot.

So far, he found that he liked chocolate chip cookies, sandwiches with ham and cheese, a pasta dish he couldn't pronounce, and a few other meals that Pudding had cooked for him.

Luffy smiled for the first time since waking up with no memory when he heard about the heal-heal fruit. He was glad he could do something not destructive or dangerous. He could help people! He didn tknow who he'd help, though, or how long it would take to be able to use that particular power.

"Pudding, how will I learn all this?" Luffy asked after she finished explaining the last paramecia devil fruit that they knew of.

"One of our siblings will help train you." When Luffy asked what train meant, Pudding explained, "It means to help you learn something. We don't know who yet, though. Most likely one of our siblings with a devil fruit."

"How many have devil fruits?"

"Twelve. Not including Mama's power," Pudding answered. She sighed quietly when Luffy asked to know about what powers they all had. Luffy noticed this and looked down at his hands in his lap. Pudding didn't like him, did she?

The woman noticed that Luffy had caught onto her mannerisms and felt irritated with herself and him. It was just hard taking care of a young child, no matter how well-behaved he was being. She would try to do better until she could pawn him off to someone else.

So, she explained the powers and attacks of her siblings. She left her own fruit out of the mix, as it might be suspicious for her to tell him she could take away memories after having his completely gone. Luffy was entertained by the conversation, wondering internally if he could get as good as his older siblings.

He didn't understand the part about the awakened devil fruit, and didn't want to annoy Pudding, so he didn't ask about it. After that, he had a long nap in the arm chair this time. Pudding was glad he took so many naps, and didn't throw tantrums like many of her younger siblings had. He seemed very reserved and shy.

Pudding did her best to be a nice "big sister" to him, and didn't let her irritated emotions slip out when she was near him. After a few days of this, Luffy grew more comfortable around her, assuming she had just been having a few bad days. He didn't bother her much, but wasn't afraid of her or thinking she would be mad at him. Though the feeling was still there, just much dimmer and in the back of his mind.

-x-

The day that Katakuri, Oven and the others on the ship returned, there was an immediate meeting with all of the upper Charlotte children to talk about Luffy's presence and how they were going to go about this. Pudding was still stuck babysitting Luffy, but would hear the plan after the meeting was over.

The eleven eldest children sat around the meeting table with Big Mom at the head of it. Three of the four sweet commanders were sitting nearest Mama. Smoothie, Cracker and Katakuri were all there, with the rest of the other side of the uneven shaped table that was much wider on one side than the other to accomodate Big Mom's size.

"As you have all heard, we got the all-all fruit from the marines. But it was eaten by someone already. So, we have the new fruit user staying with Pudding right now," Big Mom announced. The table stayed quiet, knowing better than to speak without being given permission to. "Katakuri, please explain."

Katakuri leaned back in his chair a bit more before explaining the situation in detail. "The one who ate the fruit is a three or four year old child. We have him in our custody now, like Mama said. Pudding wiped all of his memories, so it's a new start for us to assimilate him into the family. He now thinks that he is our youngest sibling."

The table was filled with disapproving mumbles from some of the others. "This child is important, so no one had better mess it up," Mama said in a dark voice that silenced the others. "There is no replacement for someone who ate an all-all fruit, especially this one."

Smoothie asked, "Who is gonna take care of him and train him?"

"The best choice would be one of our devil fruit users," Big Mom replied. Everyone agreed with that. Someone who didn't have one would be useless at teaching a child how to deal with them. "You will all have to make an effort when the one who will teach him goes on a mission of some sort and babysit him."

Oven took a gulp of his tea (wishing it was alcohol instead), and said, "How does everyone feel about having someone else have their power?" He didn't have a real problem with someone using his, but some of the others might have a problem with it. The less important Charlottes who had a devil fruit would not have their opinion on this matter. At least to Mama. They would just have to deal with it.

"I don't mind, as long as mine doesn't become the only one he uses," Smoothie said. Brulee was sure that it would take a long time for Luffy to master any of her abilities besides using and entering the Mirror World. Everyone felt that way. Even if he did use their powers, he wouldn't be proficient at it for a long time.

The other devil fruit users felt the same as Smoothie and voiced it. Daifuku was actually looking forward to what form the genie would be for this Luffy. Then came the question that no one asked, but all thought. What would Mama say about Luffy using her power? But no one asked.

"He's already been using mine on accident apparently," Katakuri said. "Pudding said he turns into a 'blob of mochi' every time he goes to sleep." A few of the others laughed, suddenly feeling a bit bad for the kid. How overwhelmed he would be with powers he can't control? But, it was overshadowed by their instincts to be the strongest and do whatever Big Mom wanted.

"Mama, this child is a huge liability," Perospero said, speaking up for the first time. "If he has all of the paramecia fruits, that means he has Whitebeard's power. He could destroy Totto Land, even on accident." A few of the others who hadn't thought of this murmured agreement with the concern.

"Ma-mama! That's why we will have someone teaching him. Someone who can keep him under control if something does accidentally happen. Besides, we'll make it so he doesn't want to hurt any of us. We'll _make_ him like us. And know that hurting any of his family will result in extreme punishment."

Katakuri closed his eyes, already knowing who Mama was going to choose. "Katakuri will be the one to keep him under control. You have awakened your fruit, which no one else has, and you have conqueror's haki. In case he gets too wild, just knock him out!" Then she laughed. Many of his siblings were shocked at the choice of one of Mama's most useful and dedicated sons to be distracted by raising and educating a child who wasn't even biologically related to them.

But, her reasons did make sense. And Katakuri couldn't refuse even if he wanted to. Besides, this was a mission, too. Just a very long term one. He was one of the oldest of the children, so he'd been around younger ones for decades.

"You had better take good care of him, Katakuri," Mama threatened. Katakuri nodded, and said he would do his best. "All of you, welcome Lufy into the family like he is one of our own," she commanded. The others all agreed and the meeting was adjourned. They would be explaining to their other siblings who werent important enough to be part of the meeting and express their opinions on the matter.


	6. A Nice Place To Be?

**Guest: thank you! I hope you stick with it.**

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Katakuri spent most of the rest of the day equipping his house for the boy, as that was where he was going to be staying. He sighed, irritated he'd now have to wear his scarf at home as well. It would scare the tiny child to see his mouth. At least anytime soon, that is. He had subordinates and siblings with nothing to do help him move the correct sized furniture into his house, into the room that had previously been a small library.

He left hardened mochi step stools strategically around the house so the boy could reach light switches and the bathroom counter. Katakuri was very glad he was potty trained, since Pudding told him that was utter relief. He didn't need the added task to potty train him along with training him and continuing the brainwashing.

He would also need to teach him to read and write, but not for a few years at least. Though he wasn't really looking forward to the long task, he wasn't going to perform it poorly. Clothes were bought after he called Pudding and asked her to do measurements on him. She was looking forward to getting rid of the kid that had been her responsibility for a few weeks.

Once the house was equipped and toddler proofed, so he didn't slam his fingers in the doorways that he would be allowed to enter through, Katakuri called Brulee to take him to Cocoa Island instead of having to sail there.

-x-

A knock on the front door of Pudding's homemade Luffy jump and rip his drawing, which upset him but he didn't show it. Pudding hurried to the door with a big smile on her face, and Luffy wondered what made her so happy. He stood up and walked to the side of the couch to peek over the edge at who was at the door.

It was a very large man Luffy was convinced would step on him, but now that he was made of gooey stuff and rubber, hopefully it wouldn't hurt him. Plus, he would just come back to life! That was the most reassuring power he knew he had so far. Though he didn't want to die and have to use it.

The man couldn't fit into the house, and Luffy heard his name said by the man, and recognized the voice from the den den mushi the other day. Kata-something. One of his big brothers. _Really big_ brother.

His dark eyes looked to Luffy, who was barely visible over the arm of the couch. He looked at him in slight surprise, like he didn't expect something about Luffy. Luffy was a bit nervous about being near this man, but Pudding had praised him for being a really good big brother.

"Luffy, you're going home with Katakuri. He's going to be taking care of you and training you in your fruit now," Pudding explained, and handed Luffy his trash-bear and basically pushed him out of her house. Luffy stumbled out, and the door was closed quickly behind him. His lower lip wobbled slightly, but he didn't want to upset Kata by crying.

Katakuri crouched down and introduced himself. "I know you don't remember me, but we'll rebuild the relationship again and it will be like it used to." Luffy nodded, and was picked up, making him look down in fear as he was lifted higher and higher until he was dropped into a chest pocket. It was a big shirt, Luffy thought. That he could fit in one of the pockets.

"Wh… when do I remeet everyone else?" Luffy asked quietly. It really was a big change from the previous Luffy Katakuri had briefly met.

"Whenever you feel ready," the man replied. Luffy smiled, liking this man much more than Pudding, even if he was scarier looking. Then he asked when he started his training. "Soon. I have a plan for it. I will help teach you the most useful fruits first. Silly and useless ones will be near the end and the hardest will be the last to attempt," Katakuri explained.

"Ok. I used some of them," Luffy mentioned. "I made sticky goo, and soaps, and made more arms out of my two arms."

"Pudding told me about you sleeping in mochi form. That is my power," Katakuri said offhandedly. He wasn't bothered by sharing his power. It was for the family that Luffy become strong.

They were both quiet while walking with Brulee through the Mirror World and to Katakuri's (and now Luffy's, too) home. Luffy was watching all of the mirrors sparkle, completely distracted with them. He was feeling a bit better after leaving Pudding and hearing he had a home. He wondered where he had lived before he lost his memories. But he didn't ask. He was a bit nervous but also excited to go someplace new and not be cooped up in one room for weeks.

The two came out at a large mirror in a big room. Luffy was shocked at how big everything was, not putting two and two together about how big Katakuri was, so he'd need things sized for him. He walked through the house, Luffy still in the pocket, and shown where everything was, and the rules. Not to run or leave any trash around, as Katakuri liked living in a clean house.

When he reached his bedroom, Luffy saw that the ceiling was impossibly tall, but the furniture was his size. He was set down and run to his new bed. He was tired of sleeping on a couch with a flimsy blanket. It wasn't dark out yet and Luffy didn't want a nap just yet, so he made sure to smooth the blanket down again and then slowly inspect the room.

He was happy to see he had a variety of clothes, and was even happier to see there were picture books and other children's toys he'd never seen before. "Thank you," Luffy said to Katakuri, who was watching from the doorway.

Even though he wasn't smiling like Pudding, and looked grumpy, he didn't seem to be mean like Pudding sometimes had been. "You're welcome. Don't go into any of the rooms that don't have the spongey door stopper, okay?" Luffy nodded, and sat on his bed, not really sure what to do now.

"Do you have any papers and wax pastels?" Luffy asked quietly, shyly and worried asking for more would get him in trouble. But Katakuri nodded and walked out of the room, Luffy reluctantly following after him to find a very large pad of paper set on the floor with a variety of the drawing utensil.

Luffy drew for a long stretch of time, able to draw so much more on the massive canvas. The drawings were scribbles to anyone else, but to Luffy, he was drawing a happy feeling, instead of the sad ones he'd mostly been doing at Pudding's. Katakuri alternated with watching the boy and reading the book on devil fruits. It was an expensive encyclopedia that included the history of the past users that had been documented.

A few of the fruits did make him a bit uneasy to be in the care of a toddler. Especially the hobby-hobby fruit, which might just be the most messed up fruit there was. To not only turn into a toy with no way to reverse it, but everyone else in the world forgot about you. Katakuri would not be teaching him that one anytime in the near future. Plus, how would you teach someone that? Well, he'd probably use people who commited a crime as practice. Whether Luffy could turn them back or not didn't matter if they were enemies of Mama and the family.

Despite Luffy using the mochi-mochi power without meaning to, it was very difficult to control elongated parts of the body, so that would be later to teach. Maybe after teaching the rubber-rubber fruit. It could be seen as useless, but Katakuri could see good points about it. Especially being immune to bullets or blunt force attacks.

Luffy eventually grew tired, and requested a nap. He walked through the big house and to his room, and looked at something in the door he hadn't noticed before. It had been changed to have a child sized hole in it that was more like a cat door that couldn't be locked. Luffy easily walked through it, having it be impossible to open the door himself. All of the other doors into the rooms he could go into didn't close all the way, so he could just push it open a bit and slip through the crack, not needing to use the door handle.

The guest bathroom was now Luffy's, and Katakuri would keep his bathroom the only one he used. Sharing a house with a child one fifth of his size might make things a bit strange. The amount of food Luffy would eat was unknown. But Katakrui had doubts that he would be able to eat a normal serving size for Katakuri.

When Luffy fell asleep, Katakuri peeked inside to see what Pudding had told him about. All that was in the bed was a white blob with a face on it. He actually almost laughed, glad that had never happened to him.

The man went to the office, which was off limits for Luffy, at least for now, and wrote up the log of the journey now that it was completely finished. He wondered when the next time he'd be sent on a mission outside of Totto Land would be. The man sighed, and looked at the ceiling. Raising a kid he wasn't even related to. He never saw himself having to do a mission like this one. Never expected Mama to accept someone into the family like this.

Though he wondered if Luffy would even be welcomed, even if the others were afraid of how Big Mom would react. Katakuri and his older siblings never knew Mama still seeked the all-all fruits. Maybe she just never mentioned it anymore because she assumed it wouldn't be discovered in her lifetime, but when word got out that it was found in the East Blue, the moment the paper was delivered she sent some of her most capable children to go fetch it.

Everyone had wondered what she would do with it, since she cant eat it while having a devil fruit of her own. Would she have fed it to one of her children? Which one would it have been? Well, he'd probably never know the answer as it was reckless to ask the yonko any unnecessary questions.

Oven had asked her once why sweets were her favorite food and she yelled at him for it. It was awkward to be in the room as none of the others saw anything wrong with the question. But such was the life of a Big Mom pirate. It didn't bother Katakuri as he was used to it.

Luffy eventually woke up near dinner and wandered through the house, looking at what he was allowed to before peeking around the corner into the living room to see Katakuri sitting on the couch that had a stool to it for Luffy to get onto it, reading something.

"Are you hungry?" Katakuri asked, making Luffy jump and wonder how he knew he was there. Luffy didn't ask, though, and said he was hungry, slowly making his way to the couch area and looking up at the impossibly tall man. He wanted to ask if everyone else in the family were super big like he was, but didn't. It might be a stupid question.

Luffy looked down at the floor sadly. He didn't like feeling sad, and some part of him felt it was a new feeling. Had he ever been sad before now? His head began to ache as he tried to remember before, but it hurt so he stopped.

Katakuri went into the kitchen, which was just a big as the rest of the house, with a massive refrigerator that there was no possible way Luffy could ever open it. At least not now. Katakuri made dinner, which was a large serving of pasta. Knowing everywhere was made of food here, Luffy was almost surprised it wasn't candy for dinner.

Pudding fed him sugar endlessly, and it made Luffy more sleepy than hyper. It might have been the point of Pudding feeding him it. To put him asleep and to not have to take care of him. Just leave him on the couch, all alone.

The food was yummy, and left Luffy fuller than he had been in the last couple weeks. He didn't need to ask for seconds because that much food was in his first serving. He scarfed it down with little manners, finally smiling brightly. Katakuri recognized the smile from before he had his memories taken away. Looked like food was something Luffy valued. Maybe teaching him Streusen's power would be beneficial for both Luffy and Katakuri. He wouldn't need to spend money on extra food, though it would be cheap anyways. And Luffy could eat whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted.

Katakuri was not going to let him get fat, he wanted the kid healthy and in tip-top shape for the rigorous training he was going to go through. "Once everyone knows you're better, but have lost your memory, we can reintroduce you to them." He didn't say anything like, "I'm sure they'll be happy to see you" because they wouldn't, and Katakuri didn't want Luffy to think he was lying to him, even though he was. Luffy's whole past and future are and will be full of lies.

"Okay," Luffy said, sad again. He wasn't looking forward to meeting other people. Pudding didn't like him, would the rest like him? Did he do something bad before he could remember and that's why Pudding disliked him? He kept his emotions inside, didn't want to cry or ask anything about what he couldn't remember. It would just make him want to remember more.

Luffy went back to his new room. He liked it, but for some reason it didn't feel cozy. He wanted to sleep under the stars, but the bed was nice. He wouldn't make things worse and anger Kata when he was going to teach him how to use his powers.

How had he eaten the fruit anyways? What had it looked like? A painful splinter stabbed his head, so he stopped thinking about it. But, not knowing anything about yourself kind of made it hard to think of anything other than what you're missing. What's lost, maybe forever. He laid down in the comfy blankets, and tried to think about nothing that would hurt his head. The boy eventually fell asleep, morphing into the mochi blob like he did whenever he fell asleep.

-x-

Luffy sat on a box in the backyard of Katakuri's large house, trying his best to do as his brother said, but he just didn't feel it happening. He was supposed to be making some goo come out of his fingers, nothing was happening. Katakuri said it could possibly be the easiest one to learn. Even if it was largely useless, Katakuri had decided to go by the easiest and then up to the hardest. There was no reason to rush, as Luffy had years to hone his fruit powers.

And as much as Luffy tried, he got that much more discouraged when nothing came from it. Katakuri was taking care of him and he couldn't even do anything right. But, the man didn't give off his irritation at nothing happening. It was largely his job to assimilate Luffy into the family, which he needs to think is caring for him and will be there to help him through his life. Getting angry or showing disappointment this early on would be counterproductive.

Luffy became distracted by a bee that kept flying around his head, making him uneasy and uncomfortable with the bug. For some reason, he felt like he was supposed to love bugs. He was feeling that strange feeling a lot lately.

It had been four days since he started living with Katakuri, and when he did things, part of him thought those things were wrong. It raised questions Luffy was afraid to ask and get an answer to. He still didn't know this man enough to feel safe asking any vulnerable questions. He didn't want to disappoint Katakuri, and then maybe the whole family.

The bee landed on his shoulder, and suddenly an arm sprouted from his inner elbow and slapped the bee dead, not stinging Luffy thankfully. Then the arm disappeared. Katakuri's eyebrows raised, surprised at the sudden control that was involuntary. But, it was useful to see as it showed that maybe it was best to have Luffy choose what powers to use.

He was only showing a few that were constant. The mochi-mochi, flower-flower, and the stick-stick fruit. There hadn't been another incident with soap, and Katakuri thought that it might have to do with Luffy subconsciously being afraid to use certain powers and anger someone else. Maybe it was best to let his emotions speak and direct the appearances of some of his many powers.

Katakuri changed his tactics, and instead of trying to tell him how to do something, would ask how he'd like to do it. Let him realize what kinds of things work for him, not what works for Katakuri.

"What did you feel when the hand appeared?" he asked, both of them inside now and on the couch.

"Mad and… scared. That the bee would hurt me."

"So you wanted the bee to go away because you were scared it was going to hurt you?" the big man asked patiently. Luffy nodded. "Have you ever used that power before?" Luffy nodded and explained the incident where he was growing frustrated with that sheet of paper not staying up, so a hand appeared to hold it down for him.

Katakuri hummed. "So, two times now it has come out when you were mad?" he asked. Luffy nodded, thinking that was correct. "Why don't we try and tap into the anger and get the hands to come out again? What make you mad?" Luffy frowned.

"I don't remember ever being mad before," he answered truthfully. "How do I get mad?" Luffy didn't want to be mad, but he didn't want to irritate Katakuri, who was still being nice to him.

Katakuri didn't know where this was going. He didn't know anything about Luffy, and he didn't know anything about himself, either. The sweet commander also didn't want to ruin his budding relationship with the kid. How would you know how to make someone mad who you've never met before and don't want to truly anger?

"Maybe think of someone telling you your drawings aren't good?" It was clear as day to probably anyone that Luffy's drawings were very important to him. Katakuri just saw scribbles and disjointed circles, but they meant something else to Luffy. Luffy frowned.

"My drawings are good..." he argued.

"I'm not saying they aren't. But, would you be mad if I did? What if I took away your drawing tools? Would that make you mad?" Katakuri probed. These should be common things children get mad at. Hell, Mama gets mad at someone taking away something from her.

Luffy's little face turned into a scowl, something Katakuri hadn't seen before. "My drawings are good and no one is taking it away," he said strongly. This method wasn't working, as it was making him actually angry and no other limbs were sprouting from anywhere. Luffy seemed to then immediately realize he'd behaved badly, and his eyes grew wide and terrified. What if he was kicked out of the family? He didn't know them, but he had nothing else.

Hands suddenly bloomed all over the walls and floor, startling both residents. Immediately all of the limbs disappeared. Well, looked like fear tapped into his powers. But that wasn't the way Katakuri wanted to train or get to know Luffy. Fear would drive him away, and may backfire on them in the future.

"Sorry," Luffy quickly apologized, wringing his small hands together. When Katakuri asked why he was apologizing, Luffy replied that he had gotten mad and mean.

"I'm not mad and you weren't mean. I might have pushed too far and upsetting you wasn't the best way to go about this. But, it does look like intense emotions affect your abilities. We don't want you to only be able to use them by being scared or angry. That's no way to live a life." Luffy nodded his head slowly. "Why don't we try and find something that makes you very happy. We can take a break now, but why don't you try and come up with something that makes you very happy?"

Luffy nodded his head and said that he'd try. Katakuri went back to his book, signaling to the boy that it was break time. Luffy didn't know what he should do, so he walked back to his room and crawled under the covers. Naps made him happy. He feels better after waking up from a nice nap. Especially now that he was on a comfortable bed.

Katakuri stayed in the living room, writing down notes about what had happened. Awakening something that makes Luffy truly happy might actually be detrimental to the family. If he remembers something, which should be impossible as everything was ripped out of his mind, then he may start to rebel and learn about their plot.

Might remember who he used to be. Katakuri couldn't let that happen, couldn't let the mission fail like that. But, there was always Pudding's ability to regularly remove memories. She'd never had to do something like this, such a thorough cleaning. And no one knew how Luffy's mind could handle something like that a second time. After all, his personality was completely altered after the memory wipe.

He'd have to be careful about this.

-x-

Three days later, there was now a jungle gym made of hardened mochi now was in the backyard. It was low enough for Luffy to use safely, even if he'd be fine even if he fell. For some reason, Luffy really liked high places. So Katakuri made a very very tall slide that he would set Luffy on top of, as there was no way he could climb a ladder that long.

When he slid down the slide, he looked absolutely joyous. It seemed like a safe thing. Lots of children enjoy slides, and Katakuri couldn't come up with a reason he'd have enjoyed being meters up in the air from a past experience. But, he could be wrong. However, that didn't matter right now. Everytime Luffy slid down the contraption, arms appeared on the edge of the slide to mess around with him and cause him to giggle.

Katakuri decided this version of Luffy was much better than the Luffy that was scared of everything and very sad. Though, that's who he became again once he got tired of the slide for a while. He'd sink back to his lonesome-seeming self. But Katakuri couldn't have seen any other way of getting him to completely assimilate to the family other than wiping his mind and starting again.

But, the slide gave them progress, and that was more than anyone had expected this early. After all, Luffy was only four, and yet he was able to manipulate a couple of the devil fruits, no matter how hard it was or how little of the time it happened. But it was a start, and Katakuri made sure to tell Luffy that he was doing well. He wanted to seem as kind as he could, as he didn't want to disappoint Mama.

He wondered if kindness would work best to get him loyal to the family. Well, Katakuri would do his best to stay seeming like this calm, collected and kind man. Instead of a brutal killer and faithful watchdog for the family that would do anything to fulfill a mission for his precious family.

Though, even Mama knew they couldn't go about this the normal way. Seeing an outsider treated like this might upset the others. Chiffon was already married out of the family, so the beatings on her for looking for Lola were over. Would the family resent Luffy for not going through anything the rest of them went through?

An argument for that point of view was that Luffy had the power to kill any of them if he wished to. He'd be more inclined to betray if they were cruel to him rather than having him love them as family. The easiest way for Luffy to betray would be using the hobby-hobby fruit. He could betray them by turning one of their members into a toy, who would then be forgotten by everyone but that person and Luffy.

As of now, Katakuri didn't think Luffy would kill anyone. Of course, that would have to change. But he wasn't going to rush this. Slow and steady wins the race.

"Kata?" Luffy asked, startling him out of his thoughts. "When do I get to meet the others?" He had a shy demeanor, and Katakuri wondered if it was too soon. Over the den den mushi, Mama had said that she would like him assimilated into the family quickly. She acknowledged that he was too young to go on missions, but getting to cooperate with the others and feel more welcomed would prepare him for partiaking in joint missions when he became older.

There was a woman who could manipulate her age with her own devil fruit, the age-age fruit, but it was agreed upon that it would be useless. It wouldn't age Luffy's brain, just his body. A four year old in a twenty year old body would still be as useless as just a plan four year old.

"Do you want to meet some soon?" Katakuri asked. Luffy nodded slowly.

"I want to make new memories. I don't like the empty in my head," he replied honestly. "I try and remember sometimes, but it hurts. I wish I never got hurt," he lamented. Katakuri frowned for him. He didn't want Luffy trying to remember his past. It could do damage to their plan and Luffy if he said that it was painful. They couldn't have him with any sort of brain injury.

"I'll set up a date soon to meet some of our brothers and sisters. The older ones," he clarified. Luffy nodded, internally wondering when he'd get to play with other kids. Katakuri was nice with the slide, but Luffy couldn't see him playing tag or hide and go seek. He was too big for both and maybe he would think Luffy was stupid to ask.

Lunch was made after that, and Luffy scarfed it down like a starving animal again. No one knew who the boy lived with before the marine vessel, but did they teach him zero manners at all? He did eat everything on his plate for every meal, leaving nothing to put in the fridge for leftovers or throw in the trash. And he thanked Katakuri for the meal anyways, which showed _some _manners.

The boy shyly and reluctantly asked for a bedtime story. Katakuri almost refused, but thought that it would hurt Luffy's feelings and make him doubt Katakuri. He couldn't have that happen. So, he read him a picture book while he was on his bed, Katakuri sitting on the floor next to the bed.

Luffy easily fell asleep and slept the rest of the night, peacefully in his mochi form.


	7. Mind Wipe Part 2

**This chapter is ridiculously short, but it needed to end how it did. I'll post the next one sooner since this one is extremely short.**

* * *

Luffy still hadn't seen anyone new and it had been over a week since he first started living with Katakuri. He was nice and Luffy liked him a lot more than Pudding and hoped that the rest of his siblings were more like Katakuri was. The man was kind to Luffy when he failed at their practicing. He tried to make Luffy happy, which made him happy anyways.

It was still difficult to think of anything happy, since he still largely didn't know anything about himself. But, his big brother assured him that, even if he hadn't lost his memory, most people don't remember their childhood that young. So it was only a temporary problem. As soon as he felt good about himself again, and was used to the family, it might not even matter that he lost his memories.

Someone was coming over to their house today. Two of Katakuri's favorite brothers. He said that they were his triplet siblings, and then explained that some babies are born all at once.

The door was knocked on while Luffy had his head rubbed soothingly as he practiced with the arms' movements. They disappeared into flower petals. It was clear to both of them that pleasure and happiness was the best way to get to use his power willingly. Though, Luffy was generally shy and sad, so making him happy was a bit of work, but should be worth it in the long run.

Luffy retreated into himself and ran to hide behind the couch so those in the doorway couldn't see him. He waited for whoever it was to say something.

"Hey, Katakuri. Where's Luffy?" a deep voice asked. Luffy peeked over the side of the couch to see someone who was very big, a bit smaller than Katakuri, but still very big to Luffy. Another man came in who was also big but still not the biggest. His outfit was interesting. They all looked very different considering they were triplets, which Katakuri had explained to him about.

Katakuri give him a stern look, a warning to behave, and lead them inside, calling for Luffy to come. He slowly walked around the couch and into view of the two big men. "Hi…" he said shyly. Daifuku hadn't seen Luffy and Oven had been on the ship after Luffy was taken into the Mirror World.

"How are you feeling? We heard about the head injury," Oven said kindly, honestly impressing Katakuri. Even Oven wasn't this nice with his own blood siblings. He clearly was taking this mission very seriously.

"I… I can't remember anything," Luffy admitted. He only knew his name from the sweet commander telling him. Oven put a warm hand on Luffy's head.

"Don't worry, we'll all make new memories, right? So how is your devil fruit training going?" Oven asked, sounding genuinely interested. Luffy had been making progress, so he shared that with him. About how being happy makes him able to use a power better.

Daifuku eventually came over and sat down to listen to Luffy talk animatedly. The man introduced himself and asked Luffy some more questions about his fruit and what powers he looks forward to most.

"I wanna be able to make food from stuff. Turning invisible also sounds fun," Luffy added. Daifuku and Oven, despite partly not wanting to accept Luffy into the family, always took missions seriously.

"What power are you having the most success with?"

"The flower one. Make arms come out of places," Luffy explained as well as he could. "It only works if I'm really happy, though. It's hard to be happy sometimes, though," he admitted quietly. Oven asked if it was because of his missing memories. Luffy nodded. "I don't know anything I like or like to do. I don't remember my family."

"Well, there's not much we can do about getting the memories back. So we all just have to move forward and be understanding," Daifuku said. There was a way to get his memories back, but they were safely hidden away some place Luffy couldn't get them. Luffy pouted at this, looking down at his bare feet on the carpet. "Do you want to see my devil fruit ability?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Okay." Daifuku rubbed his belt and blue smoke appeared, surprising Luffy. Then a blue man formed from the smoke. He was very large.

"This is my genie," he said. The blue genie looked a bit irritated for being called on just to entertain some kid. It said nothing and floated there with his arms crossed irritably. "He does the fighting for me."

"That's cool," Luffy said, though not as enthusiastically as the three men were expecting. But, maybe it was because of the genie's demeanor. Daifuku made it go away, and Oven showed off his power. He had to be careful with it not to hurt anything in the room or those around him with heating his body up. All it did was make Luffy hot, so he repeated that that power was cool, too.

"When do you want to meet everyone else?" Katakuri asked from behind the couch leaning against the wall. Luffy bit his bottom lip and shrugged. He was becoming overwhelmed by only three people. It gave the three brothers doubt that he could fit in with them, even if everyone else did their best to pretend he was one of them.

Hopefully, this shyness wouldn't persist in the long run. "How about we introduce people one at a time?" the sweet commander offered. Luffy nodded in agreement. Luffy didn't see the slight flash of irritation in Daifuku's expression, but it lasted half a second before he caught himself.

The two brothers didn't stay long, before they left with a smile to Luffy. They were barely better actors than Pudding had been this time, but still not as good as Katakuri, who was doing his best to take care of Luffy. Though, he was irritated he had to help bathe him. He was a very young child, but still. Being a child and a devil fruit user made it harder, as the bathtub in the hall bathroom was much too big for the boy, since it was sized for someone Katakuri's size.

In the water, as soon as Luffy was submerged to his neck, he went limp but his powers didn't disappear, instead the water foamed with soap, confusing and worrying Luffy about making a mess. But, the good thing about that was it completely cleaned and moisturized his skin. He didn't need any soap, just to wash his unruly black hair.

At Pudding's house, he had been given a shower, not a bath, where he was held up on a chair and the water rinsed on him. It had been miserable and cold. He liked this bath much more.

"Kata?" Luffy asked quietly. Katakuri was used to the nickname by then and asked what is it. "Will learning my powers make people happy?"

"It will make some people happy, yes," he answered truthfully, wondering where this was going.

"Will people _not _like me if I can't do it?" Luffy asked, avoiding eye contact. He shuffled his feet uncomfortably. Katakuri didn't know whether to be truthful or not. He didn't want to have uffy get upset but he didn't want to flat out lie and then have it disproved by the actions and attitudes of the family, despite being threatened by Mama to play nice.

"There are a lot of different people in our family. While some of us are happy you are better, some value strength over other things. Many see strength of a person physically is more important than they are themselves," Katakuri answered carefully. It was true, but he didn't tell Luffy the majority felt that way. Besides those who were obsessed with him.

"Oh…" Luffy said quietly. "I don't remember anything from before, but I don't like being disliked. It makes me feel bad and different."

"Different?" Katakuri asked. Luffy nodded.

"W...was I different before? Some things feel different, like I never done them before. Never been sad or angry. Did I used to be happier?" Luffy questioned. Katakuri was growing concerned. Was Luffy going to remember everything?

"Head injuries change people sometimes. You fell very hard from the balcony of the place you lived before." Luffy's eyebrows furrowed, extremely confused. It didn't make sense. He opened his mouth a few times, not sure whether to ask his question.

"Kata… Pudding said I hit my head on the playground… I'm confused," the poor boy said. He was lost, not knowing what to think. Something was wrong here. Were people lying to him? Is that why Pudding didn't like him? Did Kata even like him?

Katakuri looked upset, irritated he had messed things up. He could see the suspicion on Luffy's usually sad now face. He looked to the front door briefly. Just like that, Katakuri had lost all trust from the boy. By a simple lie that didn't match with Pudding's. He sighed and stood up.

"I was hoping it wasn't going to come to this," he said darkly. Luffy backed away a few steps and then ran to the front door, though it was too big to open. He didn't get far before he was knocked out, eyes white and mouth drooling. He collapsed on the floor, completely limp. Katakuri sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose.

He picked Luffy up and plopped the limp boy into his pocket before heading for Pudding's transponder snail. What a hassle this was becoming.

Two hours later, Luffy laid on Pudding's couch, who looked grumpy and irritated. It was late now and she had to close up shop for the night to do this with no one seeing anything suspicious. She sat on a chair next to the couch, Katakuri sitting down so he could fit inside.

"Wipe everything now. I don't care if you wipe his personality away completely. He can't get his memories back," Katakuri ordered. He was a bit disillusioned that building up that trust by being nice had been wiped out by one inconsistency. It proved that Luffy, despite being a four year old, had better instincts that they had thought.

A stupid child would have gone past the little mistep. This meant that Luffy could be more liable the more he knew about himself or anyone else. It had to be made sure that Luffy wouldnt doubt Katakuri, and getting rid of everything he was again might work in their favor.

Pudding frowned at him, and then looked to Luffy, who was so deeply unconscious that moving him from the house through the Mirror World and into Pudding's house hadn't woken him.

"I've never been this thorough before. Something could go wrong," she argued. Katakuri was silent for a moment, considering what he was to say in response, but the truth was the best reply.

"I don't think Mama will mind having a mindless machine under her wing. We cant have him having doubts in us, no matter how big or small. He has to think he's apart of this family completely, with no individuality," Katakuri said. "I tried being kind, and that didn't work out well. We'll start over again and I'll attempt a different approach."

"Alright…" Pudding mumbled, before, for the second time, wiping Luffy's memory. Not only memories of his past, but also what had happened with Katakuri not long ago. She wiped so much that some slides just came out completely blank, taking everything from him.

She exercised as much control as she could while searching for certain memories or aspects that could turn him on them. A few fizzy pictures of the two boys from before came out, blurred to the extreme, showing he had started to get his memories back. Now more determined to prevent it from happening again, Pudding took even more until nothing was coming out anymore. He was completely empty now. He didn't even have his name anymore.


	8. Undesirable Reaction

**hinakudo: thank you!**

**Obitez: thanks!**

**Sorry I'm late! I had a reminder in my phone but things got hectic this week. School started on Monday so I'm so nervous! Anyways, this is the chapter that shows what Luffy has become after the mind wipes and manipulation. Enjoy~**

Luffy was his name apparently. Some tall man told him this as he sat in a comfortable bed, not recognizing any of his surroundings. Why didn't he remember any of it? Oh well, that didn't matter. He was hungry, and tuning out mostly what Katakuri was his name, was saying.

His eyes were heavy lidded and he looked almost bored. "I don't care," he said in a monotone voice, the first time he'd spoken since he woke up from whatever happened to him. His stomach rumbled, and he realized he was hungry, wondering how long he'd been asleep. He turned the bedside table and saw an alarm clock he couldn't read.

Taking it harshly and looking straight at it, he wanted it to be food. But he didn't remember any food he'd want to make. He set it back down on the bedside table and got up, grabbing his head as it hurt, but not too bad. Just like he bumped it on something. "I'm hungry," he announced, and looked up at his brother with a blank expression.

To be honest, Katakuri liked this Luffy more, even if his tone was disrespectful. He said he didn't care about whatever happened to him, and didn't look shy or reluctant to do anything. He truly was empty. At least that's what it seemed like so far.

"I'll make you some food," Katakuri said, smiling when he turned his back. This would be so much easier if he was indifferent about anything having to do with who he was. Luffy followed him slowly, not curious about anything around him. It was a very big house, but he didn't care much.

He didn't eat messily like he had before, but he also didn't show joy of eating after being hungry. It was like the kid was on autopilot. And Katakuri was relieved with it. He had been good at it, he'll admit, but having to raise someone a caring way would have been a longer process. All he _needed_ to do was teach him to use the devil fruits and work for the family. Being nice to him had been a bonus he thought he needed to do.

After dinner, Luffy went back to his room, closing the door and going looking for some new clothes to change. He still knew how to do normal person things, even if everything else about him had been stolen.

He changed into clothes he deemed comfortable for sleeping and crawled under the covers, feeling blank. And bored. He felt so bored but didn't know what to do to not be bored. Sleep didn't even sound welcoming, he just went to bed because the big man was boring him.

Luffy knew he still had a devil fruit. He didn't remember how he got it, but he knew what it was, not that he knew where he learned it. His head was scrambled, but he didn't care as it gave him a headache and wasn't worth it. He thought about the few fruits he had that he could remember. The first that came to mind was the flower-flower fruit. Not knowing if he'd had any progress on it, and not caring much really, he tried to use it.

He had no real drive to do it, and no emotions to spur him on, yet it was more successful than it had been when he did have any sort of emotion or identity. Hands sprouted out of the walls and floors. Each hand moved how he wanted them, all at the same time. He smiled a sick smile that didn't reach his eyes. This could definitely make him not bored…

By two hours later, Luffy was able to swing from arms hanging down from the ceiling like a monkey would swing on vines. He didn't laugh. He had fun, but didn't show it. There was no real reason to, according to him. He had no idea how old he was, but being so small was a bit of an irritant. He didn't know a lot of his other powers, and he knew he couldn't read. He dropped down from the ceiling and fell onto his bare feet with a bounce.

He knew he'd have to ask for someone to help him know what the other devil fruits were. He knew that, there was no way to get around it. But he didn't feel like being taught by someone else. Since that guy didn't seem to care much about him as a person, maybe he was only there because of his power?

Well, Luffy was too young to live by himself, and he did want a roof over his head, so he'd stay with that guy for awhile. Until he mastered his powers. That could take a very long time, but it was beneficial to him to be here at the moment.

Satisfied with his progress, Luffy finally went to bed and fell asleep. He didn't turn into mochi for once, and stayed in his human form, sleeping peacefully.

"_You know what would be cool? A pinwheel out of hands!" _

Luffy's eyes snapped open, blinking in the sunlight creeping through the crack in the curtains next to his bed. He sat up, wondering where he was before he remembered waking up at this place the day before. That little snippet of dialogue from a dream disappeared, and he didn't wonder why his own voice would say something like that. It was gone now.

When he left the room, he walked right across the hallway and into the bathroom, knowing he was smelly from all the sweating he'd done while trying to focus on moving each hand separately but all at the same time. It had been easy overall, but still had taken some effort.

He remembered that he wasn't allowed to swim anymore, or he'd drown. And the bathtub was huge. Luffy didn't want help from Katakuri. He didn't want help from anyone, and especially not how to bathe. The boy jumped to reach the door stopper and yanked it off, before pushing the large door shut with all of his might. It was heavy.

Since he couldn't remember if rope making was a fruit's power, he just thought about how he could do this. Bathe but not need help to not drown. He jumped onto the seat of the toilet and thought for a moment. When hours ago he would have been distracted from other wandering thoughts or silly concepts or sad and insecure feelings, now he just strategized. How would he best be able to do this with the powers he knew he had?

After a few minutes of thinking, he came up with the best case scenario. Sprouting hands and arms from the ceiling, and having them grasp around his middle, he turned the showeer head on with arms, since he couldn't reach the nozzle. It did work, he was able to wash himself in the water, easily as he didn't need any soap for soapy bubbles fizzled out of his body. Once he heard a knock on the door, he asked, "What?" in a monotone voice.

Katakuri spoke through the door, asking if Luffy was okay and he heard the shower running. He sounded suspicious, but then again, devil fruit users can't bathe. He was already dressed, so he told the man he could come inside. "I took a shower."

"By yourself?" Katakuri asked, clearly a bit lost of how a four year old could take a shower alone while also being a devil fruit user while _also _being in a bathtub five simes his height. Luffy nodded curtly. "How?"

"Devil fruit. I can't read, can you teach me to read?" Luffy asked. He wasn't trying to sound disrespectful, but he must have. Katakuri narrowed his eyes at him. Luffy didn't think about it, but he might have given something away. So far, he wasn't impressed with this man.

"Why do you want to read?"

Luffy shrugged. "I want to know what devil fruits I have," he answered truthfully. "Why am I even here?"

"You live here, Luffy. I take care of you and am your brother," Katakuri replied.

"_I love my big brothers!" _Luffy's voice echoed in his head. He didn't show outwardly that he heard a cheerful voice in his head and ignored it, even though he never remembered saying that. "So you won't teach me to read?" Katakuri frowned at him, clear as day even if he had a scarf on.

"I will teach you to read while also helping you master your abilities." Luffy frowned at him, the first emotion he'd shown to the man since he woke up from the mind-wipe the second time.

"Why?"

Katakuri didn't know what to reply. He was starting to become irritated with this version of the little boy, who had seemed easy to manipulate. Had he made a mistake for having a second mind-wipe? "Because I want to help you learn your powers safely," was what Katakuri finally answered.

"...Hmm," Luffy said, unimpressed. "Then can we start training today? I already did some last night," he added. Katakuri raised his angled eyebrows, not having sensed him doing anything the night before.

"What kind of training did you do? Did you remember some of the devil fruits you had after your head injury?" Katakuri asked. Luffy didn't react to the head injury part, and the man was becoming uneasy about whether it would be safe to have Luffy around when he wasn't easy to emotionally manipulate.

"The flower-flower fruit. That's how I took the shower by myself," Luffy explained, and walked past Katakuri like he owned the place. Luffy either didn't notice or didn't care that katakuri was becoming irritated with his attitude. "Let's go train."

"Let me make this clear, Luffy. I am the adult in this house, I am the older brother, and you will respect me," Katakuri said slowly.

"Okay," Luffy replied easily, like it didn't faze him at all. Katakuri had been trying to be intimidating. "But what is my purpose here?" Katakuri started growing exasperated.

"Because you're a part of the family. And we want you to do well and succeed in life," he explained. Luffy wore the blank look on again.

"Okay." Katakuri took a deep breath to calm himself, before telling Luffy they were having breakfast before doing any training. The kid listened to him on this, and followed the man into the kitchen silently. Katakuri could feel his stare on him. He needed to not get angry. That would blow everything, and he was usually hard to anger, but the blatant disrespect was getting on his nerves. _No one_ had ever treated him like this before.

But, even though it annoyed him, he felt he did deserve it. He ripped Luffy's personality and memories away _twice. _Not that he'd ever learn of it. Breakfast was awkward and silent. Luffy showed no emotion to the food he was eating again. It was like eating a meal with a disrespectful robot. At least he wasn't staring at Katakuri anymore. Did he really have to house Luffy while he learned? Well, he'd teach him some respect, though he now had no strategies on how to handle Luffy's new personality.

Once training started, Luffy largely ignored Katakuri after he told him about the stick-stick fruit. He was basically just watching Luffy stare at his hands until the goo started flowing. Katakuri eventually went inside and got a book that wasn't the devil fruit encyclopedia.

It was only three hours in and Luffy could manipulate the stick-stick fruit, even though he voiced that he wouldn't be using this one much. It made Katakuri wonder what Luffy thought he was going to be doing.

After a break for Luffy to get some water, he stood in front of the man, three feet tall, and asked, "Who do you work for, Katakuri?" He chugged the rest of the water down. Katakuri decided he wasn't going to lie. If he was truthful with Luffy (at least moderately) then maybe Luffy would listen to him more. As it was now, Luffy seemed like a snotty teenager, despite being four years old and one fifth of Katakuri's size.

He closed his book and said, "I work for our family. I am a pirate, like the rest of the family."

"_Grampa says pirates are bad." _Luffy's eyes snapped wider, annoyed with the voice that kept popping up. He did his best to ignore it and try to get it to go away by not answering or focusing on it.

"Do I work for our family?" Luffy asked bluntly.

"What would you if I told you you did?" Katakuri asked slowly, his body seemed relaxed but his demeanor and expression did not. He looked angry, and Luffy decided he should backtrack. He didn't mean to be rude, but he just wanted the truth.

"I would want experience with my powers," Luffy replied.

"You'll have to do as our captain and higher ups say. Everything you do will be for the crew to succeed. If you do that, then you will have an abundance of experience with your power. If you can get your hands dirty, that is."

"Okay. I'll cooperate, but I want to do my training my way and you help if I need it." Katakuri seemed to sense that Luffy wasn't trying to be rude. At least not anymore, since it had been unclear earlier if he had been trying to, which wasn't smart.

"Deal," Katakuri said and shook the four year old's hand with two of his fingers. "But, to everyone else, you are doing this to be part of your family. Not for your own benefit, and if you express anything else, you will regret it. There are ways to hurt devil fruit users."

Luffy nodded his head. Katakuri wondered if he had been the reason the Luffy plan will fail. If, for the first time in a long time, he had made wrong judgement and thrown everyone under the bus, including Mama.

-x-

Just as Luffy promised, he listened to Katakuri and didn't show disrespect, as long as Luffy was treated with respect as well. It felt more like a business deal to train him rather than as a plan to make him stronger to be a part of the family he didn't belong to. But, there were some good things about this new Luffy.

Not only did he train vigorously and was at his best, he didn't whine or act like a child his age would. And Katakuri knew how a child that age would act. They would play games, laugh, talk, run around and just act more their age. Not Luffy. Not this one. _This _Luffy spent most of his time staring at the wall when not working with his fruit or sleeping. The house was just as quiet as it had been before Luffy came.

Luffy didn't want to see any of the others, even though he thought he was part of the family. He said, bluntly, that others would just be a distraction he wasn't interested in. But, when Katakuri told him he was coming to meet Mama, Luffy agreed. Katakuri didn't know why he agreed to this, but was glad there was no back and forth or disrespect. Luffy seemed to realize seeing the captain and "mother" was a big deal, which it was.

This Luffy was smart. He might be boring and empty, but he was smart, and that could be a very good thing or a very bad thing. They would just have to see how it went. Katakuri hadn't told anyone else about the aftereffects of the second mind-wipe. He didn't want anyone to think he'd failed them, which was something he hadn't dealt with in a long time.

But, it would be hypocritical if he had been the one urging the others to not mess up, and here he was the reason things might fall apart. Luffy followed behind him quickly, having to trot to keep up with Katakuri. But he didn't comment on it, so Katakuri acted like it wasn't happening. They passed a few of their siblings, who stared at Luffy in dislike. He seemed to really not care about it, because he had to have noticed when everyone went silent when he showed up.

"_Why are we in a giant cake? It's cool, but it makes me hungry…" _

"Shut up," Luffy hissed. Katakuri looked down at him, but seemed to think he was hearing things, as there was no one for Luffy to be talking to.

"_That's not nice. Ace and Sabo would get mad." _Luffy ignored the annoying voice talking about people Luffy didn't know. The voice went quiet for the rest of the day, thankfully.

When the two entered the room, the extremely large one that was full of talking and animated foods. It didn't take long for Luffy to notice Big Mom, and his eyes widened slightly before drooping once again. The woman was huge. Even bigger than Katakuri, who he had already thought was quite large.

There were cakes and pieces of candy bigger than Luffy was. "Luffy! I'm so happy you're finally awake! We have missed you dearly," Big Mom said. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel okay. I can't remember a lot of things," Luffy answered honestly. He didn't miss Big Mom's less than transparent grin at that. But, Luffy wouldn't get angry about someone happy he had a head injury and lost his memory. As long as he got to learn his powers, he'd play nice. It would probably take a long time, though. Years, so he had to be cool.

Big Mom seemed to notice something was off with Luffy by the time the introduction was over and not once did Luffy cower at her or the sight of her eating animate objects that were screaming. He seemed almost indifferent. The captain asked Katakuri to stay after, and instructed Luffy to go play with some of his siblings in the other room. He didn't want to, but angering her wouldn't do well for him probably.

Once he was out of the room, Big Mom turned to Katakuri and asked for an update and what kind of person she thought Luffy was, as he didn't seem like a blank slate. And how his progress was.

"Luffy is a prodigy in the making. He has already figured out how to take a shower on his own with one of his fruits. I think he will become very strong. But, there seems to have been some less than desired side-effects of the mind-wipe."

"Oh?"

"He seems almost flat. When he wasn't being a bit rude, he just seems empty. But, luckily he isn't interested in what happened in his past, or the accident that caused his memory loss. He just wants to become strong," Katakuri explained. And it was the truth, but he didn't go into detail with why he was uneasy about it and the deal the two had made.

"Well, as long as he cooperates and works for us, he is welcome. Don't mess it up, Katakuri," Big Mom threatened. She seemed perfectly polite before, but Katakuri knew better. He nodded and swore he'd do this right. And big Mom trusted him, and didn't doubt that Katakuri could make this kid a willing powerhouse of their family. He could make her the Pirate King and she could dispose of him whenever she wanted.

Luffy didn't get along with the children who were both older and bigger, but less mature it seemed. He didn't respond to their taunts or teasing, just gave them a blank stare, waiting to be able to leave so he didn't need to be around annoying people. At least Katakuri wasn't annoying. That was a good thing. One of the kids tried hitting Luffy for ignoring her, so arm sprouted out of the ground and grabbed her foot, making her trip and fall on her face. Luffy smiled slightly before relaxing his face again. That actually felt pretty good.

Before she could get up and get pissed at him, Katakuri came out and Luffy trotted behind him. Luffy had just felt a new emotion. It was different than the satisfaction he'd felt once he took the shower himself. It was pleasure. He didn't know that this would be a good thing in the long run to the Charlottes. After all, what kind of pirate never kills or tortures enemies?

-x-

The message had gotten out clearly that Luffy wasn't interested in bonding with any of his fake siblings, and none of them were bothered either. He wasn't welcome. He stayed home and trained vigorously. And though it seemed that he was invincible, he was still human and caught a bug two weeks after starting, and to say it was interesting was an understatement.

Every sneeze had some sort of reaction, but the most common one was that little white balls would pop into the air and levitate around a bit. Neither pirate had an idea for what power it was. It was only when they grew faces and started chanting "la, la, la" and lazily flying everywhere that they knew they were little ghosts.

Both of them could touch the ghosts, but when they did, each were overcome with sadness. Luffy burst into tears and Katakuri just moped intensely. Neither were happy with these and looked forward to either not sneezing ever again or being able to control them. Before that, they'd been focusing on the bubble-bubble fruit. Because that fruit was the equivalent of wetting the bed for Luffy.

It had happened twice now, and Luffy was furious about it, not to mention humiliated. Katakuri noticed he was showing more emotion the more he worked on his powers, but they weren't typical "good" ones. He often showed boredom, anger and contempt at things like when he had a slow day.

By the time Luffy was feeling better, Katakuri had said he wanted to be a water flea and Luffy had just cried like a child his age should. Neither spoke of it again, as an unspoken agreement. While Luffy acted mature for his age in an unpleasant way, he was still four, and did things four years olds did. He sucked his thumb while he slept or napped often, and Katakuri was fairly sure he had an imaginary friend.

He remembered some of his younger siblings had adopted that during their stressful and neglectful childhoods, so he said nothing about it. But, whatever kind of imaginary friend Luffy had made, they were not friends. He constantly told it to shut up. Katakuri said nothing of it, because he didn't want to piss the kid off and risk another mess, accidental or not.

Luffy was like a firecracker sometimes and just blank others. And if Katakuri had been raised in a normal family without the unhealthiness that came from such a mother, he would have seen some troubling signs from the boy. But, Katakuri was biased and used to mental illnesses so he didn't really see anything amiss or overly concerning once he got used to the boy's behavior.

To say taking care of Luffy was interesting was not a lie. There was the progression of his powers, his strange and sudden ability to take care of himself on his own, and his mood swings kept Katakuri on his toes. Something he hadn't been on at home in a long time.

-x-

"Who are Ace and Sabo?" Luffy asked quietly.

"_Ace and Sabo are Ace and Sabo." _

"That doesn't answer my question."

"_I don't know." _

Luffy had finally given up on ignoring or trying to shut up the voice in his head. It was annoying, because it was vague and often said something, only to reply that it didn't know about whatever it had just said.

"Please just shut up. I'm trying to sleep," Luffy muttered, burying his face in the pillow. The voice did as he asked, and stopped talking. It kept him company constantly, and after Katakuri started going on trips, Luffy had to admit that he got lonely staying at whoever's house just to not talk or do anything.

Katakuri was on another mission. After Luffy had mastered the basics of enough of his powers to keep him alive without too much help, Mama started sending Katakuri away on assignments that didn't include Luffy yet.

Luffy and Katakuri had a love-hate relationship, and often had Luffy mad or Katakuri frustrated. But, Katakuri still took care of him despite what a brat he could be. No one any longer cooked for Luffy once he could start creating his own food on demand, turning anything into any type of food he'd tasted before.

He also didn't need to be bathed or go through the hassle of making the arm-system to allow him to shower. The bubble-bubble cleansing made his perfectly clean. If he got hurt, he had the heal-heal fruit instead of getting any medical help. He was only six, yet was treated like an adult. He didn't like being coddled, but he also missed Katakuri when he was away. None of the other family were fond of him and vice versa.

So, he was all alone with the voice in his head the only company. Whatever talked to him acted like a young child. It complained about a lot of things, often spouting babble of things that it was unable to clarify. It could be quite annoying.

When Katakuri was gone, one of the siblings with a harder ability would help him learn. Examples of this were Brulee and her mirror mirror power that he still had trouble with. He was able to use the Mirror World, but what was strange was that Luffy's powers and Brulee's did not work the same, despite being identical fruits. Katakuri said that they were different because he and Brulee learned in different ways. But that was just a theory.

While others could use Brulee's mirror dimension, no one could enter Luffy's. Even if he attempted to bring someone else in there with him, they were unable to enter. Upon further inspection, Luffy's Mirror World was much, much larger than Brulees. While the older had all her mirrors accessible in Totto Land and closely to their islands, but not too far, Luffy's branched out to multiple territories. However, this was the one time he listened to katakuri about the man refusing him to explore one of the powers.

Having Luffy get lost in his mirror dimension made him completely alone and unable to find his way back. Plus, someone might mistake him for a missing child and take him away, as he didn't have a parent and even showing any sort of devil fruit as a child made you a target. It was something that irritated everyone. Mainly: him, Katakuri and Mama.

The powers Brulee tried to help him learn was turning animals into human form. Luffy's always ended up looking grotesque. Katakuri said that it was because Luffy had no imagination. This was also backed by the fact the art-art fruit was unusable for him. Luffy lacked imagination. He didn't know that he used to love drawing what he felt and perceived of the world, but since his second memory-wipe, that was gone.

Luffy enjoyed proving himself to Katakuri, so whenever the man came back home, Luffy wanted to show off something he'd learned, but his fast learning was fading with the more difficult fruits. No one had taught Luffy to read, still. Thinking he'd just disappear once he knew how to read the book and teach himself about the fruits. And that was true. For a year ago.

But, despite being disliked and generally not liking the others, Katakuri was still Luffy's caregiver, even if he never saw him as a brother and a father figure since his supposed mother rarely talked to him unless it was a yearly check up on his progress. The boy didn't want to know what would happen if Big Mom didn't approve of his progress.

It wasn't that Luffy was afraid that Big Mom would hurt of kill him, but she could command Katakuri to do anything for her. What if one day she decided to just rip Katakuri from Luffy? Left him all alone, only with the voice in his head.

-x-

"We're going on your first mission," Katakuri sprang the news on the almost six year old one morning while Luffy ate his own breakfast. Luffy blinked once. "Out of Totto Land. Mama thinks you have enough control over enough of your powers that it's time for you to prove yourself."

"_We get to explore?" _

"What's the mission?" Luffy asked, ignoring the child in his head.

"Assassination," Katakuri replied shortly. Luffy looked down, wondering who he'd have to kill. He knew his family killed opponents all of the time, but Luffy had never killed a human. Sure, he'd killed a couple squirrels, but that was a long time ago.

Katakuri spoke before Luffy replied. "It's mostly on you, Luffy. You'll have to pull off a covert assasination. Using your powers as stealth. Think of this as a test for all you have learned."

Luffy brought his empty bowl to the sink and created a ladder of arms to lift it up and into the basin. "So, using the calm-calm and clear-clear?" he clarified. Katakuri nodded. Luffy still wasn't perfect at those abilities. Both of them had a time limit. He could stay invisible for only an hour and silent for only fifteen minutes at a time.

"Mainly, along with others that you can use in some way to fulfil the mission."

"Okay," Luffy replied, adopting the monotone voice he got whenever he had to do something he didn't want to. He didn't feel like killing anyone lately. The urges had gone away, surprisingly, after Katakuri told him that he was important to him. Even if Luffy was "a little shit".

"It's in five weeks. If you get caught, Mama gives you permission to destroy the entire island." Luffy nodded, but wondered why he would need to be sneaky if it was fine to just trash the entire place. But, it was a test, so maybe that's why. Luffy knew he couldn't die in a conventional way unless it was with sea stone, but it was still making him a bit nervous. He didn't want to be seen as weak or useless.

"Okay. When do I get to start learning lethals?" Luffy asked. He had still wanted to learn the more dangerous ones, but no one seemed to want him to until they felt he was ready. Luffy felt perfectly ready to start learning the ones that could do significant damage.

Katakuri sighed. "I don't know. If you get mad you could kill us all."

Luffy was offended. "I've never hurt someone when I got mad! I'm in control of most of my powers!"

"What about the time you tried to wrap your arm around Flampe's neck?" Katakuri argued.

"That was a long time ago and she was asking for it! Everyone lets Anana run around and chase people with knives but I'm not allowed to choke someone a little?! Aren't we pirates? Isn't this family one big group of murderers?" Luffy countered angrily.

"It's not the same. Anana hasn't actually hurt anyone." It was a weak argument.

"Yeah, because Anana and Flampe are actual family members, right? They're the ones that matter, not Luffy, the future powerhouse that everyone is excited to see potential," Luffy taunted, though inside he was very angry.

"What?"

"I'm not an idiot," Luffy said, suddenly his voice ice cold. "I hear the whispers. I hear the others who are closer to my age talk about 'Luffy, the one that doesn't belong'. I don't give a shit most of the time but I work my butt off and now you think I can't control my powers? That's what learning is, isn't it? Learning control? Isn't that your _job? _To teach me to be _valuable_?" Then he stormed off.

"Luffy, wait!" Katakuri called after Luffy slammed the bathroom door in his face, now much stronger than someone his age should be. Katakuri opened the door anyways, to see Luffy had left through the mirror. He must be really upset if he disobeyed the main rule and didn't venture off.

Katakuri never knew the six year old knew all of that, or that he was bothered by any of it. Arguments had been on the decline lately, so this was a big deal. Katakuri knew he couldn't go after some of his biological siblings over an outsider like Luffy. He wasn't an outsider to Katakuri, but to everyone else, Luffy would never be accepted. Not even if he was the strongest person in Totto Land. Blood mattered most.


	9. New Powers

**hinakudo: thank you!**

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**So I just started posting another story, it's gonna be a long one. Check it out if you want, it's an ASL on Whitebeard pirates fic. Enjoy~**

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Luffy stormed off through his Mirror World, ignoring the voice in his head asking if he was okay, if he was upset. Yes, he was upset. He hadn't been this angry in a long time. He shouldn't have said all of that stuff about it being Katakuri's job. But it was true. Their relationship was based on a deal that Luffy would cooperate in return for benefits from learning his fruit.

It was different now, though. Things had changed and he felt he had changed, even if he was still empty a lot. Even if he still didn't know who he was really, and that he didn't fit into this "family". But, after being taken care of, he had started to want to be more than just the new powerhouse. He hated that term so much but it was the best one to use.

He wandered through the Mirror World for hours, though he left a slime track to find his way back to the original mirror. His Mirror World was blue, not purple like Brulee's. It was bigger, but not taller. When he thought about the differences between the Mirror World between the two of the users, he wondered if any of his other powers differed from those who had the original. He hadn't even met all of the devil fruit users in Totto Land due to his importance and not really wanting to meet the ones who didn't accept him anyways.

Why would he want to be rejected face to face? Luffy wondered how much Katakuri was paid to house him. He didn't know when he wanted to go back home and face the man he was angry at insinuating that Luffy would ever lose control and kill everyone. The only one that could do that would be the quake-quake fruit, which Luffy thought his body couldn't even handle yet. He was still small and had heard that it even made Whitebeard a bit sore. And Whitebeard was bigger than Katakuri was.

Luffy explored deeply into the Mirror World before the boredom came full force, and he just sat down against the wall. If he wanted, he could probably live in there, but he couldn't create things like beds or blankets or anything comfortable. At least it was a good place to be alone.

"_Let's find Ace and Sabo." _

Well, at least alone outwardly. "Go away," Luffy mumbled.

"_I wonder where grampa is, too." _

"I said go away," Luffy grumbled, becoming irritated. The voice in his head was quiet for a few minutes. Then, it popped back.

"_Don't you miss them?" _

"I have no idea who they are. They were probably before I lost my memory. I don't feel like looking back. There's no point, they haven't come to find me even if I've ever met them before. You should give up on ever seeing them again," Luffy said in his monotone voice.

"_I'll see them again. I know it."_

"Good luck with that." The voice stayed quiet a bit, and Luffy decided he didn't need Katakuri to teach him lethals. He could learn by himself. Just take trips into the Mirror World and enter uninhabited areas or islands not under Mama's care. No one would care about Luffy trashing other islands because no one knew about him yet. He wasn't in the papers at all, and didn't have a bounty.

Luffy wore a smirk, wondering if Katakuri would be mad about him learning on his own. But, then he wouldn't risk hurting them by losing control. If he wanted Luffy to not risk their safety, fine. But they'd be doing this Luffy's way. He wished he was taught to read already.

Luffy knew about three of the most lethal powers, but there was only one of them that he was excited to learn. The paw-paw fruit, which makes shock bombs, the quake-quake fruit that causes earthquakes and tsunamis, and the thud-thud fruit, where he can control gravity. That one sounded the coolest. This was a test now, of Luffy figuring out how to use the power without explicit instruction from Katakuri. But he could do it. If Katakuri didn't trust him to be able to do it under supervision, then Luffy would just have to do it by himself.

He didn't want to ruin the Mirror World, so he asked the mirrors for some place where no one lived. It was hard to find a mirror in an abandoned place, but he did find one. The mirror was dirty, and in a rotting house on a small island that no one lived on. He cautiously left the mirror out of the dilapidated house, making sure to take it off the wall and carry with him.

He hadn't been on an island that wasn't themed after food in a long time. He walked out onto the beach and sat down, laying the mirror on the ground on the sand out of reach for the water sloshing back and forth on the beach.

Luffy wanted to work on his gravity powers. Katakuri had briefly described gravity before, but Luffy had been younger and it was clear Katakuri hadn't been an expert on it. "Gravity is the natural force that causes things to fall to the earth." Luffy had not been interested in it at the time, so he hadn't asked for any more specifics. Before Katakuri told him he couldn't control his powers, the six year old was going to ask him about it.

He constantly observed dropping things, imagining slowing them down, but it didn't work. He couldn't get anything to float or stay up, making it so something didn't fall to the earth. Around two hours of no success, he took a break, though he was irritated and angry. He tried to calm himself by taking deep breaths and making himself some water out of sand.

"_What if you made things blow away?" _the voice in his head said.

"What do you mean?"

"_I don't know."_

Luffy sighed. Blow things away, huh? He looked to the side and imagined moving the sand to the side like a breeze. Nothing happened while not looking at it, but when he put a hand out, a small amount of sand flew up into the air. Happy to see some results, Luffy continued to direct his hands in one direction, imagining some sort of strong force coming out of his hands.

"_Point!" _the voice said, actually being helpful for once. Luffy pointed one finger in the direction and blew trees out of the ground and into the air, crashing and making a sizable hole through the foliage.

"You're actually helpful for once!" Luffy shouted, jumping up and down, happier than he'd been in awhile. He accomplished something completely on his own! If only he could read! Now that was an ability he wished he could learn on his own.

He practiced more and more until he could blow tunnels through the ocean water and expose crabs under the water before it came sloshing back into place. After he was satisfied with his progress, he went back into the mirror and made sure he left that next to the mirror that lead to his new practice island.

Katakuri was waiting at the bathroom mirror when Luffy appeared again, face blank but cold. He walked straight past Katakuri and into his room. But, he wasn't left alone and the man followed him. "What?" Luffy asked flatly.

"Where did you go?" Katakuri asked in an angry voice.

"I explored." And it was the truth, just not the whole truth. "I wanted to get away from you." The man winced but not enough for Luffy to notice.

"I'm only concerned about yours and others' safety by not helping you with lethals yet," Katakuri tried to explain.

"Okay. I'm tired and going to bed," he said, not sincerely. He wasn't okay with it, but it was is go-to answer whenever he didn't want to talk. Katakuri sighed, but didn't want to make the argument worse, no matter how snotty Luffy was being. But, the man did feel bad for not noticing his true feelings. It was his fault after all, that Luffy didn't share anything about what was happening with him internally. Because of the second mind-wipe he'd ordered.

If Luffy ever found out, Katakuri really didn't know what the boy would do, or what he would do.

-x-

Luffy practiced at his mystery island at every chance he had to not get caught, which wasn't much. Katakuri was training him on enhancing his sneaky abilities for his first mission, which Luffy was getting excited about for once. He got to leave Totto Land and use his powers for something practical. He wasn't going to be successful for his family, he was going to prove himself to himself and Katakuri.

He didn't really care what the others thought. The train of wanting to be close to them had long since departed. He had a feeling they would never accept him no matter what he did. He pretended not to care. Well, he didn't care about them in particular since they were all assholes, but he wished he was accepted at least somewhere.

During his training alone, he listened to the random suggestions that the voice in his head would say. They were always followed up with, "_After this, can we go see Ace and Sabo?" _Of course, Luffy still had no idea who they were or if they even existed, but he didn't lie to the voice and said "no" every time.

By a month of practicing alone late at night or when Katakuri was sometimes on a mission, he was able to control the gravity fruit to his liking, though he wouldn't use it around other people yet because he often went too hard and the island was partly destroyed already.

When Luffy had told Katakuri he'd learned enough about the clear-clear and calm-calm, he asked to learn the glare-glare to help him with his mission. Unlike most of his powers that caused something physical, changing some part of his body or creating something, this fruit all had to do with his mind.

For some reason, Katakuri was hesitant to teach him this fruit, but it would be essentially helpful for a stealth mission. So, they practiced it even while Luffy slept. Which was difficult. Very. But, it helped, and he had dreams of what was happening in his room. At night, it was limited to his bedroom and the hallway, but during the day, he could see all of their island. The problem was that it gave him a headache afterwards, so he wouldn't be able to use it much on the mission that was creeping ever closer.

Katakuri would be taking Luffy to the island the target was known to have escaped to after defeating their big brother.

-x-

The day before his mission's started, Luffy was nervous. He hated seeing Big Mom. She was rude and annoying. Always stuffing her face while talking with her mouth open. Or ordering her spineless children around, and them doing nothing to protest even if they were ordered to do things they didn't want to. Luffy couldn't wait to surpass the woman.

Though, he'd never shown disrespect to her. He didn't want her trying to take his lifespan, if it would even work with him. He was wearing nice clothes. Meaning, not ones that had any sort of stain on them or were stretched from Luffy's fruit. Katakuri lead him to Whole Cake island through the Mirror World, Brulee's, since Luffy's was only for him. Luffy hadn't been to the Chateau in awhile.

When he and Katakuri entered the room Big Mom spent most of her time, she gave the creepy smile to the boy, who kept a blank face on, already wishing the briefing was over. "Hello, Luffy," Big Mom said sweetly. So sweet it grossed Luffy out.

He just nodded his head in response. "Did Katakuri tell you at all about your mission?" Luffy nodded, and explained what Katakuri had told him.

"I still don't know who to kill, though," Luffy admitted. Big Mom grinned, clearly wanting to be the one to tell him.

"A fool from the Worst Generation defeated one of your older brothers, one of the strongest, and escaped. I want you to find and kill him using the powers you have right now. This is very important," Mama stressed.

"Okay." Big Mom didn't notice Luffy's change, but after being given this response many times, Katakuri saw it. That luffy was becoming uncomfortable and wanted to leave. "I'll do the best I can to make everyone happy."

He'd rather just make everyone surprised and impressed than happy, but Luffy knew Big Mom wouldn't want a reply like that. It would seem as if he put himself and his feelings before the family that he worked for. Soon, officially worked for. He was told the powers of this person, Urouge. Luffy wondered how he would do this with the fruits he had if he couldn't use lethals on him.

Clear-clear, calm-calm, flower-flower, rudimentary glare-glare, stick-stick, mirror-mirror, bubble-bubble, hollow-hollow, cook-cook, heal-heal, thud-thud. Including his body always being made of rubber though he hadn't specialized that ability to use for attacks. Eleven mostly mastered devil fruits. Not completely mastered as some didn't have many attacks, including the hollow-hollow fruit which only allowed him to control the annoying ghosts.

Urouge was a pirate, meaning he had a crew that might be strong. Luffy thought he could take normal ones, but he hadn't really fought another devil fruit user, especially one that wasn't vulnerable to many attacks. But, he tried not to think about it too much.

After the meeting, Luffy headed home to get some sleep. The attack had only happened a month ago, and the island wasn't too far from here. The Charlottes had been given updates from their protected island that Urouge had landed on to heal from the tough fight. He could turn attacks on him into strength, but that didn't mean he was able to heal himself easily. The fight had been close, so he was still healing.

But, he had to be back on his feet by now. Luffy would pull it off though. He knew that the Big Mom pirates were cruel, but not that they were liars. Katakuri told him that the captain had given the boy permission to destroy her protected island for one guy. Luffy would do it, not that he agreed with it, if he had to.

He didn't want to resort to that though, because everyone would die if he used his thud-thud fruit.

-x-

"_Are we going on a trip?" _the voice in his head asked the next day when the mission started and Luffy was in his Mirror World. The plan had changed last night so it didn't take so long. Since Luffy's pocket dimension was bigger and stretched out farther than Totto Land, instead of Katakuri bringing him to the destination on a boat, Luffy would find a mirror onto that island and just go through there.

Now he was truly alone in this, besides with the voice in his head.

"Yeah. But it's not gonna be super fun," Luffy replied. "And no, it's not to go see Ace and Sabo. I gotta kill some people."

"_Killing is bad." _

"That is debatable."

"_What's debatable?" _

"Nevermind…" Luffy sighed. He swore that the voice in his head was four years old or something.

"Find me a mirror to Akamari island!" Luffy shouted. His voice echoed down the hall until he heard a shout of, "Me! Pick me!" Luffy hurried towards the mirror calling to him and looked into it to see it lead into someone's bathroom. He slowly went through the mirror, invisible but not sound proof and went through the house. It was night time, and he was unused to a house sized for someone normal.

The residents were all asleep, thankfully, and Luffy easily left the house and out into town. He was told to assume Urouge was on his ship, so Luffy walked to the coast of the small and forested island. Not finding the ship at the port, Luffy walked the circumference of the island until he came across it. He was wearing a black, tight outfit with soft shoes instead of barefoot or boots he usually wore to places.

The long sleeve shirt and pants didn't really help with the cold of the night on the fall island. But luckily it wasn't snowing. If it were, his invisibility would be for nothing as someone could see his footprints as they were made.

The ship was fairly large, but nothing interesting. Quite boring. He hid behind a tree near the shore and closed his eyes, projecting his sight to the ship and what he would call zooming in so he could see inside. Many people were asleep in shared rooms, while there were three lookouts on the ship.

Everyone were correct that Urouge wasn't back to full power and still had some bandages on. Luffy wasn't surprised since he had fought one of the four strongest Charlottes there were, up there with Katakuri and Smoothie.

He did his best to memorize the ship's interior before stopping before he got a headache. The boy turned invisible and ran at the ship, turning off all sound as he climbed up the side with a ladder of arms.

He ignored the pirates on lookout and headed straight inside, bypassing rooms he knew were full of sleeping pirates. Luffy knew of haki, and couldn't use it so he felt he was on a time limit before someone found him on the ship, even if they couldn't see or hear him. These were New World pirates, so it was assumed they knew haki.

The ship was about as boring on the inside as it was outside. It was easy to make sense of the inside and use the information he already had from his glare-glare fruit. The infirmary's door was open, and Luffy found the captain having a check up, saying his arm hurt. Luffy let go of the silence and punched the door lightly, before bringing the silence back.

"What was that?" the doctor asked. Luffy heard him coming towards the door, and the moment he came into view, Luffy silenced him, too, and formed arms on both shoulders, snapping his neck easily and catching his dead body before it fell, even if it wouldn't have made sound.

"Who's there?" Urouge asked in a dark voice, clearly having noticed Luffy's presence and the doctor's disappearing. Luffy walked into the room slowly, closing the door behind him and revealing himself. No longer invisible.

"Who the fuck are you?" Urouge asked, standing up. He was quite large, though not as big as Luffy's older siblings. If he hadn't been exposed to people five times his height, then he might have been intimidated by this guy's size.

"I'm here to kill you," Luffy said bluntly. He had snuck on the ship without getting caught. There was nothing anyone said about being sneaky with the killing. Besides, Luffy would rather go all out and actually get good practice on his fruits, and maybe even having some appear while under stress and pressure to stay alive and not waste the revive-revive fruit.

"Oh? A little runt like you? Yeah right," the man with wings said. Luffy just looked unimpressed.

"_He seems like a mean guy, I don't like him." _Luffy had to agree with the voice in his head.

Luffy wasn't physically strong enough to stop or injure this guy, but he had eleven devil fruits. A couple were useless and none were very good for fighting, but he had to do it. He put a finger out and pointed it at his target and slammed him down to the wooden floor, increasing the weight of gravity until he couldn't breathe.

Luffy walked forward and bloomed arms and hands out of the ground to lock around him like ropes. He also covered him in stick so there was no way he could get out. "I've been sent here from Big Mom to avenge the son of hers you defeated."

The man looked angry at this. "That bitch sent a child after me?!" He was offended by this, that someone would send a child after him. But then it clicked, and he remembered what had happened two years ago. "You're the kid that ate the all-all fruit!"

Luffy didn't respond only to increase the gravity. He had ten minutes left before the room was no longer silent. But, the man was strong, even if he was injured, and broke through Luffy's restraints. The boy was shocked for a moment and that was what Urouge needed to get up and out of range of Luffy's finger just for a second. He was fast, and Luffy didn't know haki. But, when he was punched in the gut very hard with the man's uninjured arm, he didn't feel it thanks to being rubber. Instead of being hurt, he got slightly taller. Both of them looked a bit surprised at this. Then Urouge turned angry and Luffy realized that he'd never been told about this fruit, meaning it hadn't been in the encyclopedia.

Luffy grinned at him, and pointed at him again, shooting a harder beam of gravity. It was stronger than the last and Luffy assumed that his version worked differently than Urouge. It wasn't physical strength that got stronger, but his devil fruit powers.

Urouge slammed into the wall, making it crack and burst open into another room. Since that wall had been part of the room, it's destruction hadn't made a sound. The enemy was bleeding from the mouth as he was coughing blood from a punch nobody could handle. Luffy shot stick at him from open palms while he was stunned and trapped him against the floor he was laying on.

The stick hardened more and he couldn't get it off. Luffy felt that his extra arms couldn't twist a neck that damn thick, so he wandered around the room, keeping an eye on his prisoner, for something sharp. He didn't find anything helpful, which he was a bit bummed about, until his arm suddenly turned into a blade, each finger into small razors. Urouge's eyes widened as Luffy approached.

"How embarrassing," he taunted, enjoying the feeling of overpowering someone very much. "You'll die all alone, no one seeing how you go out. And you had just beat a Charlotte sweet commander, to be defeated by a little boy." The man's eyes grew in fear, and Luffy slammed his whole arm down and blood splattered everywhere.

Luffy washed his body off with the bubble-bubble fruit and got off of the ship, leaving his dead body on the floor. Still, none of his crew knew about what had happened, all asleep. Luffy used his stealth tactics again, since that was technically the point of the mission, and got off the ship.

Standing at the shore, he pointed both palms towards the ship and let loose the strongest burst of gravity and tore the ship into pieces, endless pieces of wood flying up and into the air, until all that was left was broken chips and huge pieces of wood. And a few bodies.

On his way back to the mirror he'd come from, Luffy decided to tell Katakuri about the power he'd shared with Urouge, but not the blade one or still the gravity power. He was going to hide the fact he was practicing lethals without permission, which would just anger his caretaker. Plus, he wanted to show that he could learn on his own. He would let Katakuri know about them once they were all completely mastered.


	10. Discovering the Truth and Making a Deal

**Chiaki Hamano: thanks! Next chapter is the last and it gets super intense! **

**mostafaelsokkary1: Thank you! It won't be dropped, we're near the end. I've written multiple Luffy in the Charlotte family fics but most of them are fluffy with Katakuri being Luffy's papa. This one is a lot different than my other ones.**

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**We are very near the end everybody. The next chapter is pretty intense and a bit violent. I look forward to posting it next week. Enjoy~**

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When Luffy walked out of the mirror he'd come from perfectly fine, it was a big deal to Katakuri, who had been worried about him. "How'd it go?" was what he asked in a calm voice.

"Urouge is dead, his ship is destroyed and I found a new power," Luffy explained, changing a piece of paper into a sheet of taffy to eat. "That guy, he punched me, but when he did I got stronger with my fruits. I don't have any lethal ones, which I _want to, _so all that got strengthened was the flower-flower and stick-stick ones."

Katakuri looked interested. "Looks like going on missions would be good for you," he commented. Luffy looked at him strangely.

"I thought you wanted to be the one to help me train everything?" Luffy accused slowly. Katakuri knew he'd been caught, sometimes hating that this version of Luffy was so smart and observant. "Oh, I get it. Big Mom told you that," he said in a monotone voice. He openly thought Katakuri was stupid for only taking her orders without ever protesting, and wasn't impressed that someone so strong was her lapdog.

Neither knew where this view came from, as he hadn't seen any different. Maybe it was because Luffy liked being more independent, so seeing someone he was supposed to respect bowing to someone else put him off.

"Yes, she did, and she was right. You enhanced a new power by being on assignment."

Luffy looked skeptical still. "You want to get rid of me?" he said slowly. Katakuri shook his head. Since Luffy had expressed his true feelings about the family and his relationship with them, Katakuri did his best not to give off any feeling that he didn't like or wanted Luffy gone. Because that wasn't the case.

"No, I want you to get stronger. I know you like being independent and doing whatever the hell you do when you leave into your Mirror World. Aren't you happy about this?" Katakuri asked.

"Okay," said Luffy, shutting down his side of the conversation. The man sighed.

"Let's go write up your report so you can go to bed." Luffy followed him and they both sat in his office, Luffy sitting on the huge desk and telling Katakuri about the mission, omitting some facts easily. The lies werent detected at all.

-x-

Big Mom was surprisingly happy about how the mission went. The family's little puppet was reliable and stronger. So, it wasn't a surprise that Luffy was sent on more and more missions. Sometimes back-to-back, which Katakuri didn't like and Luffy was quickly becoming tired of. He just wanted a week to practice in his room, or spend time with Katakuri training him or just being around. He was alone constantly as no one wanted to put out more work to sail him places instead of him going off on his own.

The only good thing about these missions were that he purposely took longer sometimes to get back so he could practice on separate uninhabited islands. The original island was no longer stable and was just a pile of dead plants and rocks.

But, sometimes he became overwhelmed with the missions and training. After reporting for a mission once that was complicated so he had to go with Katakuri to give a verbal report, he noticed that the other children, who were older than him, never had missions. His brothers and sisters got to stay at home, or play, or just do whatever they wanted while Luffy went on mission after mission with little breaks to even get a good night's sleep.

He started to resent his family even more, using his powers to do their bidding and not even getting any acknowledgement from anyone but Big Mom or Katakuri. A real reward for his work would be finally teaching him to read. He wanted the damn book already. But it was the only thing keeping him "loyal". That he didn't know many of his powers without someone else's permission.

The voice in his head was getting annoying again. Luffy was sick of the voice talking about Ace and Sabo and grampa. He didn't know these people, and it annoyed him very much. No one else knew about the voice in his head, and Luffy wasn't going to tell anyone.

When Luffy turned seven, thirty three missions later, he didn't even get anything for it. It was surprisingly the day he remembered he woke up that was his birthday. No one celebrated it, and even though Big Mom loved to throw tea parties, no one had a party for his birthday. Katakuri had wished him happy birthday but that was it. Then they had gone back outside for training, leaving Luffy to make his own special food. Just because he _could. _

-x-

It was late one night that the voice in Luffy's head wouldn't let him sleep, and it was annoying him. He had a mission in the morning, surprise surprise, and he wanted some sleep, but the voice wouldn't let him.

"_Pleeease can we see Ace and Sabo?" _

Luffy didn't reply, just turned on his side and shoved the second pillow over his head, even if that did nothing to quiet the incessant voice and its whining. "Please, let me sleep," Luffy muttered.

"_After you look at Ace and Sabo," _the childish voice insisted.

"Ace and Sabo aren't real. Stop talking about them!" Luffy hissed angrily.

"_They are real! Just look for them!"_

"Fine!" Luffy shouted, before covering his mouth and closing his eyes to see if Katakuri had woken from it. He didn't. Luffy kept his eyes closed and didn't know where to start. His vision was 3700 kilometers in each distance from where he was. It would take forever to look for someone who might not even be in range.

Luffy searched the oceans around, but it was dark and he just found a few straggling marine ships and small pirate ships. "I looked, okay? And I didn't find them. Now let me sleep," Luffy commanded. He could tell the voice was disappointed, but it didn't say anything again.

In the morning, Luffy was at the usual entrance mirror into his pocket dimension, not looking forward to this mission. Or any mission anymore. This time, Katakuri wasn't even there to see him off as Big Mom had scheduled the tea party on the day of his mission. And he wasn't invited, like usual of late. Before he turned six, he went to the tea parties, even if he wasn't included in anything or spoken to. But, after he apparently proved himself, he wasn't necessary to come anymore. So he was left out.

He left Totto Land, feeling blanker than he had for awhile. The voice in his head pestered him to look for Ace and Sabo in the mirrors, but Luffy didn't respond to it, just looking for the mirror to a protected island that had some idiot pirates attack it.

When he searched for the island's name, Brocoli Island, all mirrors there were except for a few shards that only showed low burning fires or smoke and ash. The island was gone. Luffy didn't think any of the Charlottes would care since it didn't produce any sort of sweet for the yonko.

With tons of time to kill, Luffy finally listened to the voice in his head and asked for any mirrors to go to Ace or Sabo. It was much too vague, and none of the mirrors called out. "I told you they don't exist," Luffy said.

"_They do!" _

"Then where are they, huh? My Mirror World reaches all mirrors! You think some would have seen people named Ace and Sabo before!" Luffy shouted. "Stop telling me about people who don't exist! You're just a voice in my head that won't leave me alone!"

"_I am real! I'm Luffy!" _the child's voice cried. "_I wanna go home! I wanna see grampa!" _

Luffy scoffed. "Well heads up, neither of us have a home. So shut up and stop bothering me!" Luffy roared. The voice in his head started crying, and Luffy almost felt something for it. But it wasn't real, just a voice in his head that visited him when he was most alone. Luffy stomped back down the Mirror World and looked for the way out.

"_We used to be nice! Ace and Sabo said they loved us!" _It was the first time Luffy had heard the voice call them "us" or "we". However, Luffy had just grouped them together. Neither of them had a home. Luffy struck his head against the wall.

"Just stop. I'm not in the mood. I'll probably get in trouble for not fulfilling the mission, even though I physically can't." The voice finally stopped talking, leaving Luffy alone with his thoughts. He slowly walked back to the enter mirror, and went back to ihs house and straight to bed.

The tea party would probably last all day and into the night, with no one checking on him. With Katakuri sending him on mission after mission, it made Luffy doubt that he even cared or wanted him anymore. He put his face in the pillow, shutting down the negative emotions and becoming empty, eventually falling to sleep.

He was woken up late that night with Katakuri having felt his presence. "Luffy, what are you doing here?" he asked in confusion.

"All the mirrors were broken or in fire," Luffy replied. "I couldn't fit through any of them even if I tried," he explained. "I know Big Mom will be disappointed, but there was nothing I could do." Luffy had never once called her Mama. "Please, just let me sleep."

It surprised Katakuri, since Luffy never said please for anything. He looked miserable. "I've been given a new mission," he said suddenly.

"Cool," Luffy replied in a monotone voice, wishing Katakuri would leave but also stay.

"It's to teach you to read," the man said slowly. Luffy's eyes widened. It had been three years and he hadn't been taught a word. Then, he ruined it. "Mama wants you to be able to train yourself and show your strength and intelligence." Luffy melted back into bed. Of course it was because "Mama said to".

"Okay. Do I have any more missions, then?" Katakuri shook his head. "Then leave. I'm tired and I want to sleep," the boy said and rolled over, showing his back to Katakuri and the door. The man left without a word, leaving Luffy feeling more hollow instead of blank.

-x-

Reading was by far the hardest thing Luffy had ever learned. There were so many letters and rules that he had to remember for anything to make sense. But, at least he got time off from his missions, and Katakuri was around more, even if it was a mission on his part and not him actually wanting Luffy to learn to read.

The only bad thing about it was that it was incredibly boring, and whenever he wasn't training with his powers, he was being taught to read and write. Mostly read. While the encyclopedia of devil fruits that he wanted most was unreachable yet due to the complicated wording, he felt he was doing something productive. Even if it was for someone else's wants, and not his own.

Katakuri was nice about it, though. He encouraged Luffy and didn't get mad when he had trouble with it. Luffy had to wonder if this was all acting, and he was told to be nice and supportive. He of course, didn't say any of this, keeping his feelings to himself and locked down whenever he was around someone else. Well, around Katakuri. No one else went to see Luffy.

A couple months into learning how to read, he could read basic words, and write basic sentences, even if the handwriting was very bad itself and almost illegible. But, Luffy had never felt more miserable. Even if he wasn't being given missions all the time, he had no idea whether Katakuri was doing anything because he cared about Luffy, or if it was just Mama's orders.

The voice in his head hadn't come up much, which was both a blessing but also a curse. Now Luffy was completely alone, and he wasn't sure that was what he wanted in the long run. Maybe the voice was gone since they never found Ace and Sabo.

-x-

When Luffy turned eight, he was finally able to read longer sentences of the devil fruit book that helped him greatly. He finally could see what types of fruits he would someday be able to use. But, then Katakuri disappeared again, and Luffy was seen as old enough to not need a caregiver all the time. He still lived at Katakuri's house, but he stopped interacting with Luffy. Leaving him to practice alone, only there to sometimes check up on the boy's progress.

Katakuri was cold to him, and Luffy truly thought the man's mission had been accomplished, and Luffy no longer needed him. He was so good at faking that the man didn't see his pain. How he was supposed to be valuable but actually felt completely worthless. He had almost asked Katakuri once if everything was a lie and a job and now that Luffy didn't need him all the time, if he was even considered slightly important. But he didn't.

Whenever Katakuri wasn't home and Luffy wasn't on a mission of his own, he practiced his powers, now with the aid of the book. Luffy got to pick and choose which powers he wanted to learn next. He had always wanted that, but now it felt… bad.

It slowed his progress, being so miserable.

"Are you real, voice inside my head?" Luffy asked once during his training on an uninhabited island while attempting the most painful attacks. No answer. Luffy continued to burn himself, or hurt his arms and bruise them. Or light his clothes on fire. He would just replace the clothes with garb-garb fruit, and heal himself with the heal-heal fruit. But, it didn't mean he didn't feel the pain of being burned.

The two bomb fruits were the most painful. The paw-paw fruit bruised him and the bomb-bomb fruit left him with burns. He had destroyed most of the island with both powers. It took months to finally realize he couldn't use either of the powers in close combat. Throwing them was also impossible. But one day, another lonely one, he managed to create a bigger pressure bomb from the paw-paw fruit and left it on a boulder, before running from it and hiding behind a rock. It blew up, and didn't injure the boy.

Now that he'd figured out how to do that, and got used to pain, he was ready to practice the most destructive one. He didn't really care about hurting anyone with a tsunami somewhere. It wasn't his problem. But, this one was even more painful than the others. The quake-quake fruit, broke bones.

"Are you gone for good?" he asked the voice in his head again a week later. No response. That night Luffy stayed on the island all night, and then peeked on Katakuri with his glare-glare fruit, which had extended reach now.

He saw Katakuri at home, reading on the couch and looking bored. He didn't even care that Luffy hadn't come home. That was when Luffy burst into tears about everything, alone and worthless.

"Please come back, voice in my head," he whispered. "I'll try and find your Ace and Sabo. Please, I don't want to be alone anymore…" There was no reply, and for the first time, Luffy wished he didn't have the revive-revive fruit.

When he returned the next day, Luffy had dark circles under his eyes, and was hungry but had no appetite. He walked up to Katakuri at the breakfast table. "I've mastered some of the powers," he said, angry about last night, but hoping Katakuri would do something nice. Have a celebration for him. Something.

"That's good." Luffy felt hope. "You should go on some missions so we can see how well they work." Luffy's hope crumbled. He sat at the breakfast table and picked at his food.

"Can I get some bad people? I want to practice on them," Luffy said flatly.

"Bad people?" Katakuri asked. Luffy had never expressed good people versus bad people. He nodded his head.

"I've already finished most of the powers I want. I don't feel like learning some of them yet. The jacket-jacket, spin-spin, wheel-wheel and wash-wash, or swim-swim fruits are the ones I don't feel like learning," Luffy explained.

"What ones have you mastered?"

"All of them except the hobby-hobby, clone-clone, string-string, horm-horm, memo-memo, soul-soul and I'm still having trouble with the chop-chop," Luffy replied. Katakuri looked shocked. And slightly worried.

He composed himself and said, "You've come quite a long way in seven months." Luffy didn't get any pleasure out of being praised. "I won't help you with the clone-clone or soul-soul." Luffy didn't ask why. It was probably because Big Mom said so. Like it always was. "But, I will help you with the others."

"Okay."

-x-

Finally adept at reading, Luffy could now read about things happening in Totto Land or around the world, giving him more context in his new missions, which had raised in difficulty. Now, many relied solely on the quake-quake fruit. Luckily, Luffy had learned how to use it without hurting himself.

He had made his own move that combined the paw-paw and quake-quake. He'd place a quake-quake ball and enclose it in one of the detonating bombs from the paw-paw fruit. When that fruit exploded, the quake exploded as well and destroyed whole islands. Detonating earthquakes.

On a break day once, He found some wanted posters in the newspaper that Katakuri hadn't read yet due to being at a tea party. When one of them came into view, the voice that had been absent for many months shouted, "_ACE!"_

Luffy jumped, shocked by the sudden shout, but he smiled, finally not completely alone. He looked closer at the poster, and read Fire-Fist Ace. A rookie pirate on the seas who had apparently joined the Whitebeard Pirates. Luffy felt consumed with confusion. He had never met this person before, how did the voice in his head know them?

And he knew the Whitebeard crew was their direct enemy. Well, enemy of the family. Luffy wasn't part of the family, which was clear as day, so he didn't see Whitebeard as a personal enemy of his own.

"How do you know this person?" Luffy asked aloud.

"_He's my big brother! I miss him! And Sabo, too." _

Luffy frowned. "Brothers suck. Why would you miss him?" he spat. The voice countered him, saying that _his _brothers were nice and to not talk mean about them.

"... Voice, where did you come from?"

"_I don't know." _

Luffy sighed. "Well, the tea party still has to be going on, so if you stay, I'll try and find Ace's mirror. Please, just don't leave again… okay?"

"_I promise!" _Luffy closed his eyes and looked at Whole Cake Chateau, trying to see and hear if the tea party was still in full swing so he could venture into the Mirror World without risk of Katakuri being suspicious. Because for once he would be being suspicious. Following a mission from someone other than Big Mom or Katakuri. The voice in his head.

He zoomed in on Big Mom talking with Katakuri, Cracker, and Smoothie. "Luffy is becoming too powerful, Mama," Smoothie said. Luffy didn't look away, but his face went white. "We have to do something about it, he is a liability."

"Nonsense! He's our little lapdog, I'm not going to have us do anything to keep his powers from being used for the family. Do you know how much more powerful we have become to the world because of him? Even the other yonkos are afraid of us!" Mama bragged.

"You could always have his memory wiped again, and just leave the knowledge of how to use his powers and try again," Cracker suggested to Katakuri. Luffy's heart broke when Katakuri spoke next.

"Last time I had that done, he lost his personality and became quite rude and defiant. Remember, I tried it twice and the second one still had some negative side effects," the man who Luffy thought cared for him said in a flat voice.

"Well, we can't kill him," Big Mom said. "Katakuri, is there any way you could still manipulate him into caring for us?" The top sweet commander shook his head.

"It's much too late for that. We weren't loving enough, he doesn't care about us at all," Katakuri replied. Tears trailed down Luffy's cheeks.

"Well, it's not like he's one of ours. Why would we try and be loving?" Smoothie asked, and Luffy finally looked away, breaking down into sobs. Angry and hurt sobs.

"Voice, we're going to get to the bottom of this," he said after a couple hours of moping and crying.

"_Okay, and then we find Ace and Sabo." _

"Deal."


	11. Revenge and Redemption

**T-Aj71721291: Since there is definitely nothing in common with the time line of this story and cannon, I'd say Pudding is 16 at the beginning, when Luffy was taken, but ages along with how many years passed with Luffy living with the Big Mom pirates.**

**GustavLG: Thank you! This is sadly the last chapter.**

* * *

**Here we are, at the last chapter. It's quite, quite dark and involves murder and twisted things. I hope everyone likes the ending, though. Thanks for reading! Enjoy~**

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Luffy stood in Pudding's living room, holding a doll in his hand. Pudding was useless to him, apparently. She admitted to being the one to wipe his memory after he chopped off one of her legs. No one heard her because he'd silenced the whole house. But, she didn't have his memories that he wanted back. Katakuri had them. He had been hiding Luffy's past from him, pretending and failing to be Luffy's family. Luffy had a loving family once, before he was taken for his power. Pudding knew nothing of Luffy's past, so she was useless, and he turned her into a toy without a second thought. A legless doll that no one remembered anymore.

"You really shouldn't have done that, Pudding," Luffy said darkly. He opened up the trash can and dropped the doll inside. He was getting his memories back, his old life back, no matter what it took. And he wanted revenge on the crew for ruining his life. He had come to the conclusion that the voice in his head was the past version of himself. He had once had loving brothers. Luffy wondered if they had missed him, like the voice had claimed.

While Luffy walked through his mirror dimension he tried to come up with a plan that would bring the Big Mom family down. Ruin them in the worst way possible. He hadn't returned home in hours. He didn't know what the ultimate plan that had been concocted to take care of him was. Didn't know if they wanted to kill him, and they surely couldn't erase his memories again. But it didn't matter what they would do, what mattered to Luffy was what they had _already_ done.

The Charlottes and then, by default, Big Mom pirates were his enemy. And he was taught by them to take down enemies. And that was what he was going to do. Despite his past self seeming a bit clueless and innocent, Luffy had been on countless missions that he had no help with and it made him smart.

He didn't want anyone following him after destroying them. He'd kill anyone who was in his way of revenge and then freedom. Freedom to find the voice's brothers, and maybe trying to find another home somewhere. Surely his brothers, on the Whitebeard crew, would hate him for working for Big Mom.

Maybe, though, if he got his memories back and could tell them what happened to him, Ace wouldn't hate him.

Luffy first visited Brulee's house, the only other person who could use the mirror dimension. He came in through her mirror, and it was very late at night and she was asleep. He entered her room, and covered the mirrors in her house with wax. Breaking them would be loud, but he needed to talk to her and didn't feel like it was worth it to use the calm-calm fruit. He kicked her bed forcefully. "Brulee. Wake up," he said coldly. She startled awake.

"L-Luffy? What are you doing here?" she asked in sleepiness. He looked at her coldly.

"I know what you did to me. I know you stole me from my life. And I'm gonna kill you for it," Luffy said flatly. She got up and looked to the mirror, but it was covered in wax, and the door was stuck shut. Before she could form her own mirror, Luffy turned his hand into a spike, stabbing her in the neck.

"I will take down the Big Mom pirates for good. Be glad you won't be here to witness it." He felt nothing as she died. Even the voice in his head, the innocent version of himself, said nothing. Didn't get upset about the violence and muder as he used to. Luffy created his own mirror into his pocket dimension and carried out the rest of his plan, dragging Brulee's body inside to get rid of the evidence in case anyone got suspicious.

It would take a long time, but he wasn't returning back to that place that had been home once, but was no longer and never would be again.

The first thing he did was go to the communication house on Whole Cake Island. There was a mirror in everyone's house so Brule could contact them in case of emergency. Now, it was incredibly convenient. When he reached the communication house, he stole two Proko den den mushis and brought one into the Mirror World, and another one out to the lawn in front of Whole Cake Chateau so it would project onto the side of the building.

As he worked, he wrote out a script in his head for what to say. After the snails were set up, he went back into the mirror dimension and called out for a mirror in each Charlotte's home. He made sure he was in and out so quickly that their haki couldn't get them up fast enough.

He made twelve hour detonating earthquakes and stored them under the houses or inside the chimney's in those that had them. They would all detonate, on each island, in twelve hours, despite what they would do. He didn't care about anyone in Totto Land. Them condoning and being fine with someone killing their fellow citizens was not something good, in Luffy's eyes.

They werent forced into doing that with no choice. Weren't wiped of knowledge about it. Luffy may be doing something bad, but he saw himself as the victim in all of this. He was betrayed from the start. Once he got his memories back, the plan would continue. He still had one more person to turn into a doll. The person who was primarily responsible for stealing him from his happy life that the voice talked about.

After planting all of the bombs, even one in the daycare that all the children would be welcome in in the morning, he went home. He was clean of blood, on his skin and clothes. Katakuri was pacing the house, Luffy assuming feeling nervous about whatever he was told to do about Luffy.

When he walked out of the bathroom, bringing the doorway mirror with him, he stood in front of the man who ripped his personality away, leaving a bored, angry and depressed child. "Where have you been?" he demanded. Luffy just stared at him blankly before Katakuri seemed to see what Luffy was about to do.

The sweet commander was slammed to the ground with enough force to destroy the base of the house and crush him into the dirt, unable to move and having trouble breathing. "Give me my memories back and I might not turn you into a toy," Luffy said in the coldest voice.

Katakuri looked up at him with a pained look. "Give me them back, now!" Luffy shouted, hating that stupid look. That look he'd fallen for, thinking Katakuri was sad for Luffy.

He let up on his power a bit so Katakuri could reach into his chest and pull out a big box. Luffy grabbed the box, and gave Katakuri the most hateful look imaginable, and let up and slipped into the mirror before he could knock Luffy out with conqueror's haki.

After Luffy was safe in the mirror dimension, he slipped a messily written note he'd made at Pudding's house that said, "Look forward to a broadcast on Whole Cake Chateau."

-x-

Luffy sat down in the Mirror World, looking at the thousands of reels of memory. He had never used the memo-memo power, but that didn't matter as he would get these memories back in his head no matter what. The life that was stolen from him. He recognized Fire-Fist Ace as a child in the strips of memory.

He organized them in blurriness, thinking that the most blurry were his youngest, and stuffed them back into his own head.

He felt the voice in his head fade away as his memories fit back into place, and he relived them all so quickly, but was able to process them anyways. Tears slid down his cheeks as he realized he had been loved, once upon a time. Someone cared about him. Cared about him so much they gave him up for his own safety. Didn't ignore him, or tell him he wasn't welcome in their lives. Didn't send them off on missions that could get him killed. Didn't forget all about him. Took care of him even as he made their lives harder.

He saw his grandpa, a happy looking man who had taken him to protection, putting family before his job in the marines. Luffy saw the events that lead up to his kidnapping. How he had just walked into a mirror with a complete stranger, never to know who he was again.

Luffy saw himself have a fist shoved into his head to rip away his memories of a happy life. He saw who he had been after that mind-wipe. A scared, lonely child. How that version of himself had only existed a few weeks before Katakuri, who he had thought cared for him once upon a time, knocked him out and took even more from him.

The person he'd originally been was long gone. Would Ace and Sabo accept him as he was now? Well, even if they didn't anywhere was better than _here. _He didn't know how long he was in there, but when he came out, he used his glare-glare fruit to watch what was happening. People were gathering outside the courtyard to the den den mushi that hadn't been turned on yet. The camera one was sitting next to Luffy.

While he originally had planned to have Big Mom turned into a toy, the rest of the world wouldn't remember her, and therefore wouldn't know how her palace of an island chain was going to be destroyed by the very weapon she had used against others. And a child, overpowered to the extreme or not.

It was nine hours until the detonating earthquakes would go off. He stood in front of the camera, an eight year old who thought he could never be a child again, and turned it on.

"Hello, Big Mom pirates. I know what you've done to me, to my real family. I know my life here was fake, and why you all chose to never accept me. I know you stole my personality and life from me _twice. _That was everything to me, and now I'm going to take everything from you.

"You don't remember her, but I already turned one of your siblings and daughter into a doll. She is now inside a trashcan of her own house. Oh, and you'll never be able to escape the islands because of this," he said and held up Brulee's dead body. "Does it bother you? Knowing you have forgotten something important?

"Well probably not. Even if you say family is important, you probably don't care much about your missing family member. I only wish I could have done the same to all of you, but it would be too time consuming and it's too late anyways.

"I know you call care about your reputation and status. So, how will it feel for the world to know you were brought down by a child, one of 'your own'?" He gave a cold smile. "I've been keeping my progress from you. All of you. So, you won't know what I did if I don't tell you, but you won't be able to stop it anyways.

"I've left detonating earthquakes on every single island, every home of each of you. There's no way to stop them, and they'll go off in a couple hours. You have no way to escape or evacuate in time, and even if you tried, your ships will be destroyed by tsunamis.

"I don't care what happens to the others who aren't part of your organization. Because let's get this clear: you all know this isn't a family. It might not bother you, but it's not a family. You're a pirate crew, and that's not that bad. But killing your own or not even caring? That's not a family. Not like the one I used to have.

"Have fun with the consequences of your actions. Big Mom will never be the Pirate King. I'll be long gone by the time Totto Land falls. I hope you enjoy your last couple hours of chaos." And he turned the snail off. He wished he could see the reactions to those who were watching the video. But, he wouldn't risk going back to Totto Land just to watch. He never wanted to see any of them again.

The voice in Luffy's head had gone for good after regaining his memories. And he felt both lonely, and never better. He was free, and no matter if Ace or Sabo accepted him again, he was free to live his own life. And protect himself if anyone came after him.

Luffy may never know how to use some of the Charlotte family's old powers, but he didn't care. It was never his ultimate dream to master all of them. Maybe it had been a hope once, but it wasn't his drive. He hadn't ever had one, but now he did.

"Mirrors, find me Whitebeard's ship!"

-x-

With Luffy having set the broadcast to every snail in the area, there was no doubt any marine ships had seen the video. And the world was shocked. There were few marine bases in the New World area around Totto Land, besides one, that would dispatch the video everywhere else. Everyone probably were worried about the kid on the loose.

Everyone but two people. Two people that burst into tears at the sight of their lost brother, and hearing what he'd gone through for the last four years.

However, the rest of the Whitebeard crew didn't know how to feel. They hadn't known that the all-all fruit kid had been their brother, or what had happened to him all this time. But, it didn't change the fact that the kid had done some truly heinous things. There had never been a picture of him, or a wanted poster, but they'd heard of the kid that did all of that. Destroyed crews and islands.

Had used their captain's fruit powers to destroy lives.

"He had to, he was brainwashed!" Ace argued with the first mate. He was twenty years old now, and he nor Sabo had ever told anyone about Luffy, or what had happened. No one knew they had been victims of the East Blue attack. They had kept everything close to them.

Whitebeard looked at his two sons sadly. Both still had puffy and swollen eyes from crying, something neither had ever done in front of the others, even when they were welcomed into a second family. "He may not come, sons. He may not return to you," the captain said sadly. Both men winced.

"He… he has to," Ace whispered.

"Please, Pops, we can heal him! He's only eight! We can set him straight!" Sabo begged. Both of them got on their knees in front of him. Whitebeard and Marco looked shocked at this. "Please!" both of them cried.

"If I don't allow him here, will you both leave?" Whitebeard asked after telling them to raise their heads. They both looked pained, but nodded their heads.

"Please, he's a child of the sea. We all are. We've all done bad things. He deserves to be forgiven. Maybe… maybe he's different now, but he's still our baby brother. And after all of this, he needs someone, even if those someones are no longer part of a bigger family," Ace said sincerely.

"...We will see. If he comes, I will keep my judgement until then. Now, why don't you tell me about him? About your brother who was taken from you," Whitebeard said with a kind smile.

-x-

Luffy stood in front of a big mirror, seeing the inside of a pirate ship. There were many mirrors inside the Moby Dick. Most in the bathrooms, and Luffy was afraid to enter the ship. Either no one would recognize him, or they'd all know him from his probably now infamous attack. Even if they didn't recognize him, Luffy knew he gave off a powerful aura, and he couldn't control that.

He missed the voice in his head. It was lonely now, with no one to talk to. He didn't want to admit it, but he was grieving the life he'd just lost. He felt sad about Katakuri's death, even though he truly deserved it. Luffy had done bad things. They made him do bad things. So many.

Luffy also grieved the life he knew he could have had. The person he could have been if he had been raised differently. He didn't see Ace or Sabo in any of the mirrors, but did see where they were docked from a map on the wall of one of the bedrooms.

Knowles island. If he could find a mirror there, maybe he could approach the ship by not invading it suddenly. He wished he could start his life over again, but that couldn't happen. There were no do-overs, not truly. Not like the stupid mind-wipes that Katakuri considered a do-over.

"Mirror into Knowles island!" Luffy called. Echoes of calls and "pick me!"s filled the space, and he hurried to them. He made sure it was still night time and crept into the bathroom of a house, using his stealth devil fruits to get through the houses and outside. It was snowing, something that hadn't happened in Totto Land. Well, the snow had been cotton candy. He created a nice and warm outfit and hiked down the hills and to the coast, where he saw the huge ship.

It wasn't as big as the ship Big Mom would sail, but it was still very big. And Luffy realized that he was not a people person. He'd been raised by one person mainly who left for extremely long periods of time. The Whitebeard crew was supposed to be even bigger than the Charlotte family, and closer to one another as they saw each other as real family.

He waited in the foliage for a couple hours, debating on how to do it. Did Ace and Sabo care about him anymore? After everything he'd done? He abandoned many protected islands for his own desire. Well, maybe Red Hair Shanks would do something, or Whitebeard. Big Mom had been cruel to her islands. He knew that, even though Katakuri tried to keep the bad aspects of the crew away from him.

As long as those islands continued to produce certain foods for Mama to have, then they were protected under her. No one messed with them. Well, except an overpowered eight year old.

Luffy kept himself invisible and silent, which he could keep steady for hours at a time, and sat on the shore, trying to urge himself to approach the ship openly. He wasn't going to sneak on and surprise them.

By the time day broke, Luffy was exhausted. Hadn't slept in over twenty four hours, and was desperately tired. But he didn't want to fall asleep and miss the ship. Have it leave without him even glimpsing his real brothers.

He couldn't help it though. He fell asleep, but the ship didn't leave without him.

-x-

Luffy woke up in the arms of someone warm and bright, carrying him gently, something he hadn't had in a long time. The last time he was carried sincerely and not by a liar was his grampa, who was most likely dead.

He slowly opened his eyes to see he was curled up in the arms of his brother. Who had tears down his face, making his freckled cheeks wet. Luffy buried his face into Ace's chest and started sobbing, Ace holding him closer as he carried him somewhere, Luffy didn't care. A hand was then rubbed through his hair and he knew Sabo was there, too. They didn't hate Luffy.

They stopped in a bedroom with a bunk bed, with various clothes strewn around the room, and the bathroom door open and showing a messy bathroom as well. The room was warm and nice and Luffy was caringly tucked into the bed, Ace and Sabo sitting on either side of him, who was still crying.

"We missed you a lot, Luffy," Ace said. Luffy just nodded his head.

"I d-didn't remember y-you and the voice in my head al-always talked about y-you and I didn't believe it," Luffy confessed. "Pudding wiped m-my memory two times. They killed grampa."

Sabo and Ace felt rage at what had happened to Luffy's freedom and bright future. Hopefully, they could repair his heart and mind. "He said I was part of the family but everyone told me I was-wasn't, and then they k-kept sending me on missions and leaving my by myself. Only wan-wanted me cause of my powers. He lied to me, an-and I thought he cared about me. They though ab-about killing me cause I got t-t-too strong."

"We'll never do that. We are your brothers, real ones. We don't care if you have strong powers, we love you and missed you and will never let you go again. Even if we have to leave the crew, we're not parting with you again. Ever," Sabo vowed.

Luffy looked away. "I'm… I'm different now. I did bad things, and said bad things, and hurt people."

"They made you. We saw the tape and can't imagine how the past couple of years have been for you. But, we'll make sure you heal and are happy," Ace vowed. "No matter what happens next we aren't leaving you or giving you up ever again."

"P-promise?" Luffy asked weakly.

"We promise," Sabo swore. Luffy, for once in a long time, fell asleep without an extra voice in his head, with people who cared about him, not under some sort of stress or upset, and looking forward to the next day, no matter what happened. He found his family again and he wasn't being stolen ever again. And he wouldn't let anyone hurt his _real _brothers.

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**Aaand all of the Big Mom pirates who were at Totto Land are dead (including the citizens. yikes). Anyways, I had to give Luffy a happy ending after all he's been through. **


End file.
